The process of analysing multivariate datasets using pattern recognition or other knowledge discovery techniques to identify potentially unknown and potentially meaningful data content, relationships, classification, or trends. Data mining parameters include: Association (looking for patterns where one event is connected to another event); Sequence or path analysis (looking for patterns where one event leads to another later event); Classification (looking for new patterns); Clustering (finding and visually documenting groups of facts not previously known); Forecasting, or predictive analytics (discovering patterns in data that can lead to reasonable predictions about the future.