Summary

In this chapter, we discussed how hierarchical clustering works and where it may be best employed. In particular, we discussed various aspects of how clusters can be subjectively chosen through the evaluation of a dendrogram plot. This is a huge advantage over k-means clustering if you have absolutely no idea of what you're looking for in the data. Two key parameters that drive the success of hierarchical clustering were also discussed: the agglomerative versus divisive approach and linkage criteria. Agglomerative clustering takes a bottom-up approach by recursively grouping nearby data together until it results in one large cluster. Divisive clustering takes a top-down approach by starting with the one large cluster and recursively breaking it down until each data point falls into its own cluster. Divisive clustering has the potential to be more accurate since it has a complete view of the data from the start; however, it adds a layer of complexity that can decrease the...