An Efficient Fufp-tree Maintenance Algorithm for Record Modification

The Frequent-Pattern-tree (FP-tree) is an efficient data structure for association-rule mining without the generation of candidate itemsets. It is used to compress a database into a tree structure, which stores only large items. When the underlying data is updated, the FP-tree, however, needs to process all the transactions in a batch way. In this paper, we thus attempt to extend the FP-tree construction algorithm for the efficient handling of record modification. An expeditious FP-tree (FUFP-tree) structure is used to ease the tree update process. An FUFP-tree maintenance algorithm is also proposed for reducing the execution time in reconstructing the tree when records are modified. Experimental results show that the proposed FUFP-tree maintenance algorithm for record modification runs faster than the batch FP-tree construction algorithm for handling updated records and generates nearly the same tree structure as the FP-tree algorithm. The proposed approach can thus achieve a good trade-off between execution time and tree complexity.