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An algorithm is a set of rules for solving a specific kind of problem in a finite number of steps. Oracle Data Mining supports at least one algorithm for each data mining function. For some functions, you can choose among several algorithms. For example, Oracle Data Mining supports four classification algorithms.
Each data mining model is produced by a specific algorithm. When there is more that one algorithm for a data mining function, it is often not clear which algorithm is the best one to use. The best strategy may be to build models using each algorithm and then determine which model best solves the problem. Oracle Data Miner makes it easy to build several different models using the same data and then to compare the models.
Some data mining problems can best be solved by using several algorithms. This necessitates the development of several models. For example, you might first use a feature extraction model to create an optimized set of predictors, then a classification model to make a prediction on the results.
For information about the algorithms that Oracle Data Miner supports, see Data Mining Algorithms.