Association rule learning

Are people who purchase tea more or less likely to purchase carbonated drinks?

Association rule learning is a method for discovering interesting correlations between variables in large databases. It was first used by major supermarket chains to discover interesting relations between products, using data from supermarket point-of-sale (POS) systems.

Association rule learning is being used to help:

• place products in better proximity to each other in order to increase sales

• extract information about visitors to websites from web server logs

• analyze biological data to uncover new relationships

• monitor system logs to detect intruders and malicious activity

• identify if people who buy milk and butter are more likely to buy diapers