2.3 Data Mining PL/SQL Packages

The PL/SQL interface to Oracle Data Mining is implemented in three packages.

The following table displays the PL/SQL packages.

Table 2-2 Data Mining PL/SQL Packages

Package Name Description

DBMS_DATA_MINING

Routines for creating and managing mining models

DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM

Routines for transforming the data for mining

DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS

Routines that perform predictive analytics

2.3.1 DBMS_DATA_MINING

Understand the routines of DBMS_DATA_MINING package.

The DBMS_DATA_MINING package contains routines for creating mining models, for performing operations on mining models, and for querying mining models. The package includes routines for:

  • Creating, dropping, and performing other DDL operations on mining models

  • Obtaining detailed information about model attributes, rules, and other information internal to the model (model details)

  • Computing test metrics for classification models

  • Specifying costs for classification models

  • Exporting and importing models

  • Building models using Oracle's native algorithms as well as algorithms written in R

2.3.2 DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM

Understand the routines of DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM package.

The DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM package contains routines that perform data transformations such as binning, normalization, and outlier treatment. The package includes routines for:

  • Specifying transformations in a format that can be embedded in a mining model.

  • Specifying transformations as relational views (external to mining model objects).

  • Specifying distinct properties for columns in the build data. For example, you can specify that the column must be interpreted as unstructured text, or that the column must be excluded from Automatic Data Preparation.

2.3.2.1 Transformation Methods in DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM

Summarizes the methods for transforming data in DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM package.

Table 2-3 DBMS_DATA_MINING_TRANSFORM Transformation Methods

Transformation Method Description

XFORM interface

CREATE, INSERT, and XFORM routines specify transformations in external views

STACK interface

CREATE, INSERT, and XFORM routines specify transformations for embedding in a model

SET_TRANSFORM

Specifies transformations for embedding in a model

The statements in the following example create an Support Vector Machine (SVM) Classification model called T_SVM_Clas_sample with an embedded transformation that causes the comments attribute to be treated as unstructured text data.

Example 2-7 Sample Embedded Transformation

DECLARE
  xformlist dbms_data_mining_transform.TRANSFORM_LIST;
BEGIN
  dbms_data_mining_transform.SET_TRANSFORM(
    xformlist, 'comments', null, 'comments', null, 'TEXT');
  DBMS_DATA_MINING.CREATE_MODEL(
    model_name          => 'T_SVM_Clas_sample',
    mining_function     => dbms_data_mining.classification,
    data_table_name     => 'mining_build_text',
    case_id_column_name => 'cust_id',
    target_column_name  => 'affinity_card',
    settings_table_name => 't_svmc_sample_settings',
    xform_list => xformlist);
END;
/ 

2.3.3 DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS

Understand the routines of DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS package.

The DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS package contains routines that perform an automated form of data mining known as predictive analytics. With predictive analytics, you do not need to be aware of model building or scoring. All mining activities are handled internally by the procedure. The DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS package includes these routines:

  • EXPLAIN ranks attributes in order of influence in explaining a target column.

  • PREDICT predicts the value of a target column based on values in the input data.

  • PROFILE generates rules that describe the cases from the input data.

The EXPLAIN statement in the following example lists attributes in the view mining_data_build_v in order of their importance in predicting affinity_card.

Example 2-8 Sample EXPLAIN Statement

BEGIN 
    DBMS_PREDICTIVE_ANALYTICS.EXPLAIN( 
        data_table_name      => 'mining_data_build_v', 
        explain_column_name  => 'affinity_card', 
        result_table_name    => 'explain_results'); 
END; 
/