Assignment 2

Submission Requirements

• All answer texts must be computer generated. You can draw the diagrams manually. But they should be clear and neat. diagrams).
• The hand-in version must be ordered correctly and stapled in the top left corner.
• The hand-in version must include a header page indicating: student name, student number, course number and assignment number.

1. Using DBMiner to Mine Association Rules (40 marks)

• Required Setup:


(1) Download DBMiner from http://db.cs.sfu.ca/DBMiner/index.html

(2) When DBMiner is ready to use, check the on-line DBMiner tutorial which can be accessed from here.

(3) Following the steps outlined in Section 1 in the tutorial to connect DBMiner to the OLAP server, the name of which is CYPRESS in the CSIL.

(4) Read Section 2 in the tutorial on how to mine associations from a data cube in DBMiner. The tutorial shows how to mine inter-dimensional associations. In this question, you are required to mine both inter-dimensional and intra-dimentional asscociations. Pay special attention to step (d) in the tutorial in that section. For intra-dimensional association mining in DBMiner, you will specify the Repetitive dimension as well as the Group by dimension(s) in that step. You may also set the contraints there (you may need to read the on-line documentation on what the contraints are in DBMiner).

(5) In this question, select FoodMart as your data base.

• Tasks:
• Step (1) Suppose you have an inter-dimensional association query as follows.

      MINE Inter-dimensional association
      WITH RESPECT TO Customers, Education Level, Gender, Marital Status, Product
      FROM CUBE FoodMart-Sales
      SET Minimum support 5%
      SET Minimum confidence 45%
      WITH CONSTRAINTS AS FOLLOWS
           The level for dimension Customers: USA.
           The level for dimension Education Level: Bachelor degree

Use the mining wizard in DBMiner to submit this association task. How many rules did you obtain finally? For each meta rule below, report the one with the highest support in the final rule set.
1. W and X => Y and Z
2. X => Y and Z
3. X => Y
where W, X, Y, and Z are different attribute-value pairs.
 
• Step (2) For the above query, keep the same specifications you set in step (1). But for this step, dynamically change the Minimum support back and forth until the number of rules in the final rule set falls between 20-25.

How many rules did you obtain finally? For each meta rule below, report the one with the highest support in the final rule set.
1. X => Y
2. X => Y and Z
where X, Y and Z are different attribute-value pairs.

In the final rule set, do you think whether there are any redundant rules? If yes, choose one and explain why it is redundant.
 

• Step (3) Suppose you have an intra-dimensional association query as follows.

      MINE Intra-dimensional association
      WITH REPETITIVE DIMENSION Promotion Media
      GROUP BY DIMENSION Customers
      FROM CUBE FoodMart-Sales
      SET Minimum support 10%
      SET Minimum confidence 80%
      WITH CONSTRAINTS AS FOLLOWS
           The level for dimension Customers: [City]
           The items selected for dimension Promotion Media to do the association: 
               [Bulk Media], [Cash Register Handout], [Daily Paper, Radio, TV],
               [Daily Paper, Radio], [Daily Paper], [In-Store Coupon]
           Only use these constraints to do the association

Use the mining wizard in DBMiner to submit this association task. Please note that when you submit this query, follow the constraints strictly and do not change them. Otherwise, it would generate too many rules and cost too much time.

How many rules did you finally obtain? List the three rules with the highest support along with their corresponding confidence.

• Step (4) Use the same query as in Step (3). Dynamically change the Minimum support until there is at least one rule but no more than three rules left in the final rule set. Show what Minimum support you chose at this time. List these rules along with their support as well as their confidence.

 
• Submission:


For each step, submit the result you obtained.
 
 

2. Chapter 3, Exercise 6, 8 (30 marks)

3. Chapter 4, Exercise 4, 7 (30 marks)