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Di erence Between Descriptive and Predictive

Data Mining

The descriptive and predictive data mining techniques are used in data mining to
mine the types of patterns. The descriptive analysis is used to mine data and
provide the latest information on past or recent events. On the other hand, the
predictive analysis provides answers of the future queries that move across using
historical data as the chief principle for decisions.

Data mining tasks can be descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. Here we are just
discussing the two of them descriptive and prescriptive. In simple words,
descriptive implicates discovering the interesting patterns or association relating
the data whereas predictive involves the prediction and classi cation of the
behaviour of the model founded on the current and past data.
Content: Descriptive Data Mining Vs Predictive Data
Mining
1. Comparison Chart
2. De nition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR
DESCRIPTIVE MINING PREDICTIVE MINING
COMPARISON

Basic It identi es, what It describes, what can happen in

happened in the past by the future with the help past

analyzing stored data data analysis.

Require Data aggregation and data Statistics and forecasting

mining methods

Preciseness Provides accurate data Produces results does not

ensure accuracy.

Type of Reactive Proactive

approach

Practical Standard reporting, Predictive modelling,

analysis query/drill down and ad- forecasting, simulation and

methods hoc reporting. alerts.

De nition of Descriptive Data Mining

Descriptive mining is generally used to produce correlation, cross tabulation,
frequency etcetera. These techniques are determined to nd the regularities in
the data and to reveal patterns. The other application of descriptive analysis is to
discover the captivating subgroups in the major part of the data.

Descriptive analytics focuses on the summarization and conversion of the data

into meaningful information for reporting and monitoring. Furthermore, it permits
to examine the data in a detailed way so that it would be able to answer easily
about “what has happened?” and “what is happening?”. Clustering, summarization,
association are the techniques categorized under descriptive mining.

De nition of Predictive Data Mining

The primary objective of predictive mining is to predict future results instead of
current behaviour. It involves the supervised learning functions used for the
prediction of the target value. The methods fall under this mining category are the
classi cation, time-series analysis and regression. Data modelling is the necessity
of the predictive analysis, which works by utilizing some variables to anticipate
the unknown future data values for other variables.

Additionally, it also conducts the comparison among these supervised learning

methods for obtaining the prescience about the strength and weaknesses of each
approach. This whole process is performed to nd out the most suitable method
for extracting the desired knowledge. The predictive analysis is used for providing
information about “what might happen?” and “why it might happen?”.

Key Di erences Between Descriptive and Predictive

Data Mining
1. Descriptive mining tasks describe the characteristics of the data in a
target data set. On the other hand, predictive mining tasks carry out
the induction over the current and past data so that predictions can
be made.
 2. In terms of accuracy, the descriptive technique is more precise and
accurate as compared to predictive mining.

3. The predictive analysis involves control over the situation along with
responding to it while descriptive analysis just responds to the
situation.

4. The operation performed in the descriptive approach are standard

reporting, query/drill down and ad-hoc reporting which are capable of
generating the response of –
what happened?

where exactly is the problem?

what is the frequency of the problem?

As against, predictive mining performs tasks like predictive modelling,

forecasting, simulation and alerts. These involve the result of
questions like –

what will happen next?

what is the outcome if these trends continue?

what actions are required to be taken?

Conclusion
Descriptive mining employs unsupervised learning functions while predictive uses
supervised learning techniques. This is the reason the descriptive analysis is not
able to anticipate the unknown target values but concentrates more on the
intrinsic arrangement, interconnections and relations. Conversely, predictive
mining speci es and distinguishes a set of data for future prediction.

Related Di erences:
1. Difference Between Supervised and Unsupervised Learning