Clustering Analysis

SKILL.md

Clustering Analysis

Overview

Clustering partitions data into groups of similar observations without pre-defined labels, enabling discovery of natural patterns and structures in data.

When to Use

Segmenting customers based on purchasing behavior or demographics

Discovering natural groupings in data without prior knowledge of categories

Identifying market segments for targeted marketing campaigns

Organizing large datasets into meaningful categories for further analysis

Finding patterns in gene expression data or medical imaging

Grouping documents, products, or users by similarity for recommendation systems

Clustering Algorithms

K-Means: Partitioning into k clusters

Hierarchical: Dendrograms showing nested clusters

DBSCAN: Density-based arbitrary-shaped clusters

Gaussian Mixture: Probabilistic clustering

Agglomerative: Bottom-up hierarchical approach

Key Concepts

Cluster Validation: Metrics to evaluate cluster quality

Optimal Clusters: Methods to determine best k

Inertia: Within-cluster sum of squares

Silhouette Score: Measure of cluster separation

Dendrogram: Hierarchical clustering visualization

Implementation with Python

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sklearn.cluster import KMeans, DBSCAN, AgglomerativeClustering
from sklearn.mixture import GaussianMixture
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.metrics import (
    silhouette_score, silhouette_samples, davies_bouldin_score,
    calinski_harabasz_score
)
from scipy.cluster.hierarchy import dendrogram, linkage
import seaborn as sns

# Generate sample data
np.random.seed(42)
n_samples = 300
centers = [[0, 0], [5, 5], [-3, 4]]
X = np.vstack([
    np.random.randn(100, 2) + centers[0],
    np.random.randn(100, 2) + centers[1],
    np.random.randn(100, 2) + centers[2],
])

# Standardize
scaler = StandardScaler()
X_scaled = scaler.fit_transform(X)

# K-Means with Elbow method
inertias = []
silhouette_scores = []
k_range = range(2, 11)

for k in k_range:
    kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=k, random_state=42, n_init=10)
    kmeans.fit(X_scaled)
    inertias.append(kmeans.inertia_)
    silhouette_scores.append(silhouette_score(X_scaled, kmeans.labels_))

fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(14, 4))

axes[0].plot(k_range, inertias, 'bo-')
axes[0].set_xlabel('Number of Clusters (k)')
axes[0].set_ylabel('Inertia')
axes[0].set_title('Elbow Method')
axes[0].grid(True, alpha=0.3)

axes[1].plot(k_range, silhouette_scores, 'go-')
axes[1].set_xlabel('Number of Clusters (k)')
axes[1].set_ylabel('Silhouette Score')
axes[1].set_title('Silhouette Analysis')
axes[1].grid(True, alpha=0.3)

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

# Optimal k = 3
optimal_k = 3
kmeans = KMeans(n_clusters=optimal_k, random_state=42, n_init=10)
kmeans_labels = kmeans.fit_predict(X_scaled)

# K-Means visualization
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(15, 4))

# K-Means clusters
axes[0].scatter(X[:, 0], X[:, 1], c=kmeans_labels, cmap='viridis', alpha=0.6)
axes[0].scatter(
    kmeans.cluster_centers_[:, 0], kmeans.cluster_centers_[:, 1],
    c='red', marker='X', s=200, edgecolors='black', linewidths=2
)
axes[0].set_title(f'K-Means (k={optimal_k})')
axes[0].set_xlabel('Feature 1')
axes[0].set_ylabel('Feature 2')

# Silhouette plot
ax = axes[1]
y_lower = 10
silhouette_vals = silhouette_samples(X_scaled, kmeans_labels)

for i in range(optimal_k):
    cluster_silhouette_vals = silhouette_vals[kmeans_labels == i]
    cluster_silhouette_vals.sort()

    size_cluster_i = cluster_silhouette_vals.shape[0]
    y_upper = y_lower + size_cluster_i

    ax.fill_betweenx(np.arange(y_lower, y_upper),
                      0, cluster_silhouette_vals,
                      alpha=0.7, label=f'Cluster {i}')
    y_lower = y_upper + 10

ax.axvline(x=silhouette_score(X_scaled, kmeans_labels), color="red", linestyle="--")
ax.set_xlabel('Silhouette Coefficient')
ax.set_ylabel('Cluster Label')
ax.set_title('Silhouette Plot')

# Hierarchical clustering
linkage_matrix = linkage(X_scaled, method='ward')
dendrogram(linkage_matrix, ax=axes[2], truncate_mode='lastp', p=10)
axes[2].set_title('Dendrogram (Ward)')
axes[2].set_xlabel('Sample Index')

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

# Hierarchical clustering
hierarchical = AgglomerativeClustering(n_clusters=optimal_k, linkage='ward')
hier_labels = hierarchical.fit_predict(X_scaled)

# DBSCAN clustering
dbscan = DBSCAN(eps=0.4, min_samples=5)
dbscan_labels = dbscan.fit_predict(X_scaled)
n_clusters_dbscan = len(set(dbscan_labels)) - (1 if -1 in dbscan_labels else 0)
n_noise = list(dbscan_labels).count(-1)

# Gaussian Mixture Model
gmm = GaussianMixture(n_components=optimal_k, random_state=42)
gmm_labels = gmm.fit_predict(X_scaled)
gmm_proba = gmm.predict_proba(X_scaled)

# Clustering algorithm comparison
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(12, 10))

algorithms = [
    (kmeans_labels, 'K-Means'),
    (hier_labels, 'Hierarchical'),
    (dbscan_labels, 'DBSCAN'),
    (gmm_labels, 'Gaussian Mixture'),
]

for idx, (labels, title) in enumerate(algorithms):
    ax = axes[idx // 2, idx % 2]

    # Skip noise points for DBSCAN
    mask = labels != -1
    scatter = ax.scatter(
        X[mask, 0], X[mask, 1], c=labels[mask], cmap='viridis', alpha=0.6
    )

    if title == 'DBSCAN' and n_noise > 0:
        noise_mask = labels == -1
        ax.scatter(X[noise_mask, 0], X[noise_mask, 1], c='red', marker='x', s=100, label='Noise')
        ax.legend()

    ax.set_title(f'{title} (n_clusters={len(set(labels[mask]))})')
    ax.set_xlabel('Feature 1')
    ax.set_ylabel('Feature 2')

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

# Cluster validation metrics
validation_metrics = {
    'Algorithm': ['K-Means', 'Hierarchical', 'DBSCAN', 'GMM'],
    'Silhouette Score': [
        silhouette_score(X_scaled, kmeans_labels),
        silhouette_score(X_scaled, hier_labels),
        silhouette_score(X_scaled[dbscan_labels != -1], dbscan_labels[dbscan_labels != -1]) if n_noise < len(X_scaled) else np.nan,
        silhouette_score(X_scaled, gmm_labels),
    ],
    'Davies-Bouldin Index': [
        davies_bouldin_score(X_scaled, kmeans_labels),
        davies_bouldin_score(X_scaled, hier_labels),
        davies_bouldin_score(X_scaled[dbscan_labels != -1], dbscan_labels[dbscan_labels != -1]) if n_noise < len(X_scaled) else np.nan,
        davies_bouldin_score(X_scaled, gmm_labels),
    ],
    'Calinski-Harabasz Index': [
        calinski_harabasz_score(X_scaled, kmeans_labels),
        calinski_harabasz_score(X_scaled, hier_labels),
        calinski_harabasz_score(X_scaled[dbscan_labels != -1], dbscan_labels[dbscan_labels != -1]) if n_noise < len(X_scaled) else np.nan,
        calinski_harabasz_score(X_scaled, gmm_labels),
    ],
}

metrics_df = pd.DataFrame(validation_metrics)
print("Clustering Validation Metrics:")
print(metrics_df)

# Cluster size analysis
sizes_df = pd.DataFrame({
    'K-Means': pd.Series(kmeans_labels).value_counts().sort_index(),
    'Hierarchical': pd.Series(hier_labels).value_counts().sort_index(),
    'GMM': pd.Series(gmm_labels).value_counts().sort_index(),
})

print("\nCluster Sizes:")
print(sizes_df)

# Membership probability (GMM)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 6))
membership = gmm_proba.max(axis=1)
scatter = ax.scatter(X[:, 0], X[:, 1], c=membership, cmap='RdYlGn', alpha=0.6, s=50)
ax.set_title('Cluster Membership Confidence (GMM)')
ax.set_xlabel('Feature 1')
ax.set_ylabel('Feature 2')
plt.colorbar(scatter, ax=ax, label='Membership Probability')
plt.show()

# Cluster characteristics
kmeans_centers_original = scaler.inverse_transform(kmeans.cluster_centers_)
cluster_df = pd.DataFrame(X, columns=['Feature 1', 'Feature 2'])
cluster_df['Cluster'] = kmeans_labels

for cluster_id in range(optimal_k):
    cluster_data = cluster_df[cluster_df['Cluster'] == cluster_id]
    print(f"\nCluster {cluster_id} Characteristics:")
    print(cluster_data[['Feature 1', 'Feature 2']].describe())

Cluster Quality Metrics

Silhouette Score: -1 to 1 (higher is better)

Davies-Bouldin Index: Lower is better

Calinski-Harabasz Index: Higher is better

Inertia: Lower is better (KMeans only)

Algorithm Selection

K-Means: Fast, spherical clusters, k needs specification

Hierarchical: Produces dendrogram, interpretable

DBSCAN: Arbitrary shapes, handles noise

GMM: Probabilistic, soft assignments

Deliverables

Optimal cluster count analysis

Cluster visualizations

Validation metrics comparison

Cluster characteristics summary

Silhouette plots

Dendrogram for hierarchical clustering

Membership assignments