Cluster Details with Oracle Data Mining - Part 2

This is the second blog post of my series on examining the clusters that are predicted for by an Oracle Data Mining model for your data. In my previous blog post I should you how to use CLUSTER_ID and CLUSTER_PROBABILITY functions. These are the core of what you will be used when working with clusters and automating the process.

In this blog post I will look at what details are used by the clustering model to make the prediction. The function that you can use is called CLUSTER_DETAILS. I had an earlier blog post on using PREDICTION_DETAILS to see some of the details that are produced when performing classification.

CLUSTER_DETAILS returns the cluster details for each row in the selection. The return value is an XML string that describes the attributes of the highest probability cluster.

Here is an example of using the CLUSTER_DETAILS function in a SELECT statement.

select cluster_details(clus_km_1_37, 14 USING *) as Cluster_Details
from   insur_cust_ltv_sample 
where  customer_id = 'CU13386';

The output is an XML string and the easiest way to view this is in SQL Developer. It will list the top 5 highest weighted attributes for the cluster centroid.

The returned attributes are ordered by weight. The weight of an attribute expresses its positive or negative impact on cluster assignment. A positive weight indicates an increased likelihood of assignment. A negative weight indicates a decreased likelihood of assignment. By default, CLUSTER_DETAILS returns the attributes with the highest positive weights in defending order.