weka.associations
Class Associator

java.lang.Object
  weka.associations.Associator

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable

Direct Known Subclasses:

Apriori, Tertius

public abstract class Associator

extends java.lang.Object

implements java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable

Abstract scheme for learning associations. All schemes for learning associations implemement this class

Version:

$Revision: 1.4 $

Author:

Eibe Frank (eibe@cs.waikato.ac.nz)

See Also:

Serialized Form

Constructor Summary

Associator()

Method Summary

abstract void	buildAssociations(Instances data) Generates an associator.
static Associator	forName(java.lang.String associatorName, java.lang.String[] options) Creates a new instance of a associator given it's class name and (optional) arguments to pass to it's setOptions method.
static Associator[]	makeCopies(Associator model, int num) Creates copies of the current associator.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

Associator

public Associator()

Method Detail

buildAssociations

public abstract void buildAssociations(Instances data)
                                throws java.lang.Exception

Generates an associator. Must initialize all fields of the associator that are not being set via options (ie. multiple calls of buildAssociator must always lead to the same result). Must not change the dataset in any way.

Parameters:

data - set of instances serving as training data

Throws:

java.lang.Exception - if the associator has not been generated successfully

forName

public static Associator forName(java.lang.String associatorName,
                                 java.lang.String[] options)
                          throws java.lang.Exception

Creates a new instance of a associator given it's class name and (optional) arguments to pass to it's setOptions method. If the associator implements OptionHandler and the options parameter is non-null, the associator will have it's options set.

Parameters:

associatorName - the fully qualified class name of the associator

options - an array of options suitable for passing to setOptions. May be null.

Returns:

the newly created associator, ready for use.

Throws:

java.lang.Exception - if the associator name is invalid, or the options supplied are not acceptable to the associator

makeCopies

public static Associator[] makeCopies(Associator model,
                                      int num)
                               throws java.lang.Exception

Creates copies of the current associator. Note that this method now uses Serialization to perform a deep copy, so the Associator object must be fully Serializable. Any currently built model will now be copied as well.

Parameters:

model - an example associator to copy

num - the number of associators copies to create.

Returns:

an array of associators.

Throws:

java.lang.Exception - if an error occurs