HVSM: A New Sequential Pattern Mining Algorithm Using Bitmap Representation

Sequential pattern mining is an important problem for data mining with broad applications. This paper presents a first-Horizontal-last-Vertical scanning database Sequential pattern Mining algorithm (HVSM). HVSM considers a database as a vertical bitmap. The algorithm first extends itemsets horizontally, and digs out all one-large-sequence itemsets. It then extends the sequence vertically and generates candidate large sequence. The candidate large sequence is generated by taking brother-nodes as child-nodes. The algorithm counts the support by recording the first TID mark (1st-TID). Experiments show that HVSM algorithm can find frequent sequences faster than SPAM algorithm in mining the large transaction databases.