Data mining

(Computers) data processing used to search for hidden information and hidden patterns in a group of data

Data mining can be defined as "the nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data". Data mining may also be defined as "the science of extracting useful information from large data sets or databases".Data mining is the principle of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but it is increasingly used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods.
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Noun
1. data processing using sophisticated data search capabilities and statistical algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting databases; a way to discover new meaning in data
(hypernym) data processing

<database> Analysis of data in a database using tools which look for trends or anomalies without knowledge of the meaning of the data. Data mining was invented by IBM who hold some related patents.
Data mining may well be done on a data warehouse.
ShowCase STRATEGY is an example of a data mining tool.
(2001-02-08)

using and exploring the company data-base looking for potential customer segments where more/new products might be marketed; using software to discover patterns within a database; uses approaches such as neural networks, case-based reasoning, and decision-tree algorithms.