Data mining is the process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems.[1] It is an essential process where intelligent methods are applied to extract data patterns.[1][2] It is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science.[1][3][4] The overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from a data set and transform it into an understandable structure for further use.[1] Aside from the raw analysis step, it involves database and data management aspects, data pre-processing, model and inference considerations, interestingness metrics, complexity considerations, post-processing of discovered structures, visualization, and online updating.[1] Data mining is the analysis step of the "knowledge discovery in databases" process, or KDD.[5]