Efficient Algorithms for Mining Frequent Patterns from Sparse and Dense Databases

In this article, we present a new approach for frequent pattern mining (FPM) that runs fast for both sparse and dense databases. Two algorithms, FEM and DFEM, based on our approach are also introduced. FEM applies a fixed threshold as the condition for switching between the two mining strategies; meanwhile, DFEM adopts this threshold dynamically at runtime to best fit the characteristics of the database during the mining process, especially when minimum support threshold is low. Additionally, we present optimization techniques for the proposed algorithms to speed the mining process, reduce the memory usage, and optimize the I/O cost. We also analyze in depth the performance of FEM and DFEM and compare them with several existing algorithms. The experimental results show that FEM and DFEM achieve a significant improvement in execution time and consume less memory than many popular FPM algorithms including the well-known Apriori, FP-growth, and Eclat