Abstract
Standard clustering algorithms can completely fail to identify clear cluster structure if that structure is confined to a subset of the variables. A forward selection procedure for identifying the subset is proposed and studied in the context of complete linkage hierarchical clustering. The basic approach can be applied to other clustering methods, too.
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Fowlkes, E.B., Gnanadesikan, R. & Kettenring, J.R. Variable selection in clustering. Journal of Classification 5, 205–228 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01897164
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01897164