I-Tree: A Frequent Patterns Mining Approach without Candidate Generation or Support Constraint

Devising an efficient one-pass frequent pattern mining algorithm has been an issue in data mining research in recent past. Pattern growth algorithms like FP-Growth which are found more efficient than candidate generation and test algorithms still require two database scans. Moreover, FP-growth approach requires rebuilding the base-tree while mining with different support counts. In this paper we propose an item-based tree, called I-Tree that not only efficiently mines frequent patterns with single database scan but also provides multiple mining scopes with multiple support thresholds. The 'build-once-mine-many' property of I-Tree allows it to construct the tree only once and perform mining operation several times with the variation of support count values.