Hierarchical Clustering

Learn about two types of hierarchical clustering - Divisive Clustering and Agglomerative Clustering.

Hierarchical clustering

Hierarchical clustering does not restrict the user to choose the number of the clusters before running the algorithm. Users can choose different values of K, and different clusters will be fixed. It uses the dendrogram type of formulation. When choosing a different K, the same computation will be used (no need to rerun the algorithm). We can also capture highly complex shapes of clusters.

Hierarchical clustering can be classified into two types:

  • Divisive: Top to down approach; put all the data in one cluster and keep dividing it.
  • Agglomerative: Bottom to up; each data point into a separate cluster and combine cluster and keep moving up to form a single cluster of all data points.
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