The practice of searching through large amounts of computerized data to find useful patterns or trends.

It is a system of data processing using sophisticated data search capabilities and statistical algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting databases; a way to discover new meanings in data.

Data mining is about finding new information within existing data. Patterns, relationships, correlations, and dependencies are located by analyzing data using a variety of tools and techniques.

Data mining has grown in popularity as computers and software have become available to handle the task.