What are the advantages and disadvantages of decision tree algorithm?
Advantages
- Decision tree is comprehensive in nature as it forces the consideration of all possible outcomes of a decision and traces to a conclusion
- In monetary problems where decision tree assigns specific values to attain an outcome, this algorithm reduces uncertainty, clears up ambiguity and clarifies the financial consequences of various courses of action
- It is very easy to use and implement algorithm and uses the same pattern of thinking that human being uses while making decision
Disadvantages
- A small change in data can lead to a large change in optimal decision tree
- They are relatively inaccurate compared to other algorithms
- Information gain is biased when data contains categorical variables with different numbers of levels.
- Algorithm can be complex if the outcomes are linked