Abstract. In this paper, we study clustering with respect to the k-modes objective function, a natural formulation of clustering for categorical data. One of the main contributions of this paper is to establish the connection between kmodes and k-median, i.e., the optimum of k-median is at most the twice the optimum of k-modes for the same categorical data clustering problem. Based on this observation, we derive a deterministic algorithm that achieves an approximation factor of 2. Furthermore, we prove that the distance measure in k-modes defines a metric. Hence, we are able to extend existing approximation algorithms for metric k-median to k-modes. Empirical results verify the superiority of our method.
In REF similarity and efficiency of k-mode is investigated and related to the k-median approach.
Approximation Algorithms for K-Modes Clustering
ArXiv
ArXiv
Computer Science