Comparative study on textual data set using fuzzy clustering algorithms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model techniques in order to treat and classify textual data sets with and without noise. A comparative study is done in order to select the most accurate T-S algorithm in the textual data sets. Design/methodology/approach From a survey about what has been termed the “Tunisian Revolution,” the authors collect a textual data set from a questionnaire targeted at students. Five clustering algorithms are mainly applied: the Gath-Geva (G-G) algorithm, the modified G-G algorithm, the fuzzy c-means algorithm and the kernel fuzzy c-means algorithm. The authors examine the performances of the four clustering algorithms and select the most reliable one to cluster textual data. Findings The proposed methodology was to cluster textual data based on the T-S fuzzy model. On one hand, the results obtained using the T-S models are in the form of numerical relationships between selected keywords and the rest of words constituting a text. Consequently, it allows the authors to interpret these results not only qualitatively but also quantitatively. On the other hand, the proposed method is applied for clustering text taking into account the noise. Originality/value The originality comes from the fact that the authors validate some economical results based on textual data, even if they have not been written by experts in the linguistic fields. In addition, the results obtained in this study are easy and simple to interpret by the analysts.