The Relation between Formal Concept Analysis and Rough Set Theory

Formal concept analysis and rough set theory have both similarities and differences. Although both are on the base of some data table, they provide two different methods for data mining and knowledge acquisition. At first, this paper discusses differences and relations between the extension of formal concepts in formal concept analysis and the equivalence classes of the rough set theory. Then, by introducing distinguishable relation of attribute set, it further studies the relationship between them. In the meanwhile, relevant theory and equivalent proposition is drawn out. At last, it discusses the relation between the consistent set of information system and consistent set of formal context, the relation between the consistent set with distinguish ability and consistent set of formal context. All the theoretical analysis here is meaningful and lays a theoretical foundation to further discuss the relation between reduction in the rough set theory and formal concept analysis.