Bayesian classification is a statistical technique that determines the probability that an element belongs to a particular class. For example, this technique can be used to estimate the probability of a customer belonging to the class of sports car buyers, given some customer attributes such as type of work performed, age, income, civil status, sports practiced, and so on.
The technique is based on the theorem of Bayes, a mathematician and British Presbyterian minister of the eighteenth century. The theorem defines the posterior probability of an event with respect to another. Posterior, in this context, means after taking into account the events relevant to the particular case being examined as if they have already happened.
The Bayesian classifier algorithm assumes that the effect of an event on a given class is independent of the values of other events. This assumption, called the conditional independence of the classes, is intended...