ExAnte: a preprocessing method for frequent-pattern mining

Our main research objective is to define a data mining query language, supported by a system that can optimize constraint-based data mining queries. We have invented ExAnte, a simple yet effective preprocessing technique for frequent-pattern mining. ExAnte exploits constraints to dramatically reduce the analyzed data to those containing patterns of interest. This data reduction, in turn, induces a strong reduction of the candidate patterns' search space, thus supporting substantial performance improvements in subsequent mining.