Patent ID: 7328218

Claim:
A computer implemented method of ordering data on a computer useable medium in a decision tree, the method comprising the steps of: a. identifying training data; b. identifying a set of attributes, the set of attributes comprising: a target attribute; and allowable predictor attributes; c. characterizing the set of attributes; d. specifying constraints on the decision tree in terms of the characterized set of attributes; e. determining which allowable predictor attributes satisfy the constraints at a node of the decision tree; f. determining the best splitter among the allowable predictor attributes that satisfy the constraints at said node of the decision tree; g. splitting all of the splittable nodes at a region of the decision tree using said best splitter; h. incrementing the region of the decision tree by 1; i. repeating steps e through h until there are no splittable nodes remaining; and j. storing the data as a decision tree on a computer readable medium.