A survey on association rule mining based on evolutionary algorithms

ABSTRACT

Searching for patterns in large database is one of the major tasks in data mining. This can be achieved by using association rule mining, which usually tends to find out the relations in an exhaustive manner. In real life, many data mining tasks require optimization between multiple objectives concurrently. Consequently over the years a large number of researches have been conducted on various techniques for efficient association rule mining and among them the field of evolutionary technique is growing rapidly with its large-scale applications and exceptional result. This research includes a systematical structured review of a wide range of state-of-the-art and recent multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) in terms of their chromosome representation, genetic operators and initial population, which are applied to categorical, quantitative and fuzzy rule mining problems. A lucid comparative study on various MOEA-based approaches includes computational complexity and applications within the context of this research. Finally, a guideline toward future studies on MOEA approaches has been presented that incorporates a general discussion of the current state of art literatures, newly rising study area (Interactive MOEA) along with their limitations and numerous possibilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Association rule mining
• multi-objective evolutionary algorithm
• categorical rule mining
• numerical rule mining
• fuzzy rule mining

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bodrunnessa Badhon

Bodrunnessa Badhon is currently pursuing her Masters in Computer Science and Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Bangladesh. She completed her B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the same university in 2016. She has research interest in Data Mining, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Genetic Algorithm, Fuzzy Logic and Artificial Intelligence.

Mir Md. Jahangir Kabir

Dr Mir Md Jahangir Kabir is currently a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Department, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. He received B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, University of Stuttgart, Germany, and University of Tasmania, Australia in 2004, 2009, and 2016, respectively. After working as a Lecturer (from 2004) and Assistant Professor (from 2010), he was an Associate Professor (from 2017) in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. He joined as a Professor (from 2018) in the same department of that University. He received an Overseas Postgraduate Research Award from the Australian government in 2013 to research in Ph.D. His research interests include the theory and applications of Data Mining, Genetic Algorithm, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

Shuxiang Xu

Dr Shuxiang Xu is currently a lecturer and PhD student supervisor within the Discipline of ICT, School of Technology, Environments and Design, University of Tasmania, Australia. He received a Bachelor of Applied Mathematics from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (1986), China, a Master of Applied Mathematics from Sichuan Normal University (1989), China, and a Ph.D. in Computing from the University of Western Sydney (2000), Australia. He received an Overseas Postgraduate Research Award from the Australian government in 1996 to research his Computing Ph.D. His research interests are Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Mining. Much of his work is focused on developing new Machine Learning algorithms and using them to solve problems in various application fields.

Monika Kabir

Monika Kabir is currently working as a lecturer in Computer Science and Engineering Department, Varendra University, Bangladesh. She received B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Bangladesh in 2016. She is also pursuing her M.Sc. in the same university under the supervision of Prof. Mir Md. Jahangir Kabir. Her research interests include Text Mining, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Fuzzy Logic, and Artificial Intelligence.