Algorithm for finding zero factor free rules

Abstract

Class detection rules aremostly used for classifying new objects. Another possible usage is to describe a set of objects (a class) by the rules. Determinacy Analysis (DA) is a knowledge mining method with such purpose. Sets of rules are used to answer the questions “Who are they (objects of the class)?”, “How can we describe them?”. Rules found by different DA methods tend to contain some redundant information called zero factors. In this paper we show how zero factors are related to closed sets and minimal generators. We propose a new algorithm that extracts zero-factor-free rules and zero factors themselves, based on finding generators. Knowing zero factors gives to the analyst important additional knowledge for understanding the essence of the described set of objects (a class).