Currently I'm studying different types of of machine learning and I came across the subject Clustering....As I understand clustering identifies similarities between observations based on their features and then groups them into discrete clusters. Once the similarities are determine and then grouping occurs, how does the model label each grouping or cluster?
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2 Answers
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Normally a cluster just gets assigned an ID (typically numerical); the labelling is left as an exercise to the analyst, as it involves abstracting from individual items to the commonalities of the members of a cluster.
For some clustering algorithms which identify a centroid for each cluster it would conceivably be possible to use that central item as label for the cluster, but otherwise this is not done automatically.
Giving a cluster a meaningful label is only relevant when describing the outcome, so for purely exploratory data analysis is is not really necessary.
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Clustering Basics Clustering groups data points based on their similarities. The groups are called clusters, and they don’t have predefined labels.
How Clusters Get Identified and Labeled Automatic Grouping: The clustering algorithm (like K-means) groups similar data points together. Initial Labels: Clusters are given basic numerical labels (e.g., Cluster 1, Cluster 2). Making Sense of Clusters Manual Inspection: Look at the data in each cluster to understand what the points have in common. Use this understanding to give more meaningful labels. Domain Knowledge: Use knowledge about the data to interpret clusters. For example, in customer data, you might label clusters as "High Spenders" or "Frequent Buyers." Key Features: Examine important features that define each cluster to create descriptive labels. Example Using K-means clustering:
Run K-means: Groups data into clusters. Examine Results: Look at the characteristics of each cluster. Assign Labels: Use insights to label clusters meaningfully (e.g., "Young Professionals" for a group of young, high-income customers).
