An iterative growing and pruning algorithm for classification tree design

An efficient iterative method is proposed to grow and prune classification trees. This method divides the data sample into two subsets and iteratively grows a tree with one subset and prunes it with the other subset, successively interchanging the roles of the two subsets. The convergence and other properties of the algorithm are established. Theoretical and practical considerations suggest that the iterative tree growing and pruning algorithm should perform better and require less computation than other widely used tree growing and pruning algorithms. Numerical results on a waveform recognition problem are presented to support this view