What is the main goal of data mining?

The main goal of data mining is to discover patterns and correlations in data. This process involves analyzing large volumes of data to identify trends, relationships, and useful information that might not be immediately apparent. Through various techniques such as clustering, classification, regression, and association rule mining, data mining enables organizations to extract valuable insights from their datasets, which can inform decision-making, refine marketing strategies, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance customer experiences.

While creating new datasets, visualizing data, and standardizing databases are all important aspects of data management and analysis, they are not the primary objectives of data mining. Creating new datasets often involves data collection and structuring, visualization focuses on the representation of data for easier understanding, and standardization ensures consistency in database formats. None of these activities directly align with the core purpose of data mining, which is fundamentally about uncovering hidden knowledge within existing data.