<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision tree</span>

Decision tree

<p>A <b>decision tree</b>  is a <a href="/en/Decision_support_system" title="Decision support system" class="wl">decision support</a> tool that uses a <a href="/en/Tree_(graph_theory)" title="Tree (graph theory)" class="wl">tree-like</a> <a href="/en/Causal_model" title="Causal model" class="wl">model</a> of decisions and their possible consequences, including <a href="/en/Probability" title="Probability" class="wl">chance</a> event outcomes, resource costs, and <a href="/en/Utility" title="Utility" class="wl">utility</a>. It is one way to display an <a href="/en/Algorithm" title="Algorithm" class="wl">algorithm</a> that only contains conditional control statements.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Decision support tool</div>
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<figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:Manual_decision_tree.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Manual_decision_tree.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Manual_decision_tree.jpg/220px-Manual_decision_tree.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="400" data-file-height="473" data-file-type="bitmap" height="260" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Manual_decision_tree.jpg/330px-Manual_decision_tree.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Manual_decision_tree.jpg 2x" alt="Manual_decision_tree.jpg"></a><figcaption>Traditionally, decision trees have been created manually.</figcaption></figure>
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href="/en/File:Detail_of_Tree_of_Knowledge_after_Diderot_&_d'Alembert's_Encyclopédie,_by_Chrétien_Frédéric_Guillaume_Roth.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" title="detail of a Tree of Knowledge after Diderot &amp; d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, by Chrétien Frédéric Guillaume Roth" data-hash="File:Detail_of_Tree_of_Knowledge_after_Diderot_&_d'Alembert's_Encyclopédie,_by_Chrétien_Frédéric_Guillaume_Roth.jpg"><img loading="lazy"alt="detail of a Tree of Knowledge after Diderot &amp; d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, by Chrétien Frédéric Guillaume Roth" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Detail_of_Tree_of_Knowledge_after_Diderot_%26_d%27Alembert%27s_Encyclop%C3%A9die%2C_by_Chr%C3%A9tien_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Guillaume_Roth.jpg/250px-Detail_of_Tree_of_Knowledge_after_Diderot_%26_d%27Alembert%27s_Encyclop%C3%A9die%2C_by_Chr%C3%A9tien_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Guillaume_Roth.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="1590" data-file-height="771" data-file-type="bitmap" 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Topics and fields</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.9em;">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Business_decision_mapping" title="Business decision mapping" class="wl">Business decision mapping</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Data_visualization" title="Data visualization" class="mw-redirect wl">Data visualization</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Graphic_communication" title="Graphic communication" class="wl">Graphic communication</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Infographic" title="Infographic" class="wl">Infographics</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Information_design" title="Information design" class="wl">Information design</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Knowledge_visualization" title="Knowledge visualization" class="mw-redirect wl">Knowledge visualization</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Mental_model" title="Mental model" class="wl">Mental model</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Morphological_analysis_(problem-solving)" title="Morphological analysis (problem-solving)" class="wl">Morphological analysis</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Ontology_(computer_science)" title="Ontology (computer science)" class="wl">Ontology (computer science)</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Schema_(psychology)" title="Schema (psychology)" class="wl">Schema (psychology)</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Visual_analytics" title="Visual analytics" class="wl">Visual analytics</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Visual_language" title="Visual language" class="wl">Visual language</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:transparent;">
Node–link approaches</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.9em;">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Argument_map" title="Argument map" class="wl">Argument map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Cladistics" title="Cladistics" class="wl">Cladistics</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Cognitive_map" title="Cognitive map" class="wl">Cognitive map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Concept_lattice" title="Concept lattice" class="mw-redirect wl">Concept lattice</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Concept_map" title="Concept map" class="wl">Concept map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Conceptual_graph" title="Conceptual graph" class="wl">Conceptual graph</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Decision_tree" title="Decision tree" class="wl">Decision tree</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Dendrogram" title="Dendrogram" class="wl">Dendrogram</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Graph_drawing" title="Graph drawing" class="wl">Graph drawing</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Hyperbolic_tree" title="Hyperbolic tree" class="wl">Hyperbolic tree</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Hypertext" title="Hypertext" class="wl">Hypertext</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Issue-based_information_system" title="Issue-based information system" class="wl">Issue map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Issue_tree" title="Issue tree" class="wl">Issue tree</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Layered_graph_drawing" title="Layered graph drawing" class="wl">Layered graph drawing</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Mind_map" title="Mind map" class="wl">Mind map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Object-role_modeling" title="Object-role modeling" class="wl">Object-role modeling</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Organizational_chart" title="Organizational chart" class="wl">Organizational chart</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Radial_tree" title="Radial tree" class="wl">Radial tree</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Semantic_network" title="Semantic network" class="wl">Semantic network</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Sociogram" title="Sociogram" class="wl">Sociogram</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Timeline" title="Timeline" class="wl">Timeline</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Topic_map" title="Topic map" class="wl">Topic map</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Tree_structure" title="Tree structure" class="wl">Tree structure</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/ZigZag_(software)" title="ZigZag (software)" class="wl">ZigZag</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:transparent;">
See also</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-bottom:0.9em;">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Design_rationale" title="Design rationale" class="wl">Design rationale</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Diagrammatic_reasoning" title="Diagrammatic reasoning" class="wl">Diagrammatic reasoning</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Entity–relationship_model" title="Entity–relationship model" class="wl">Entity–relationship model</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Geovisualization" title="Geovisualization" class="wl">Geovisualization</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/List_of_concept-_and_mind-mapping_software" title="List of concept- and mind-mapping software" class="wl">List of concept- and mind-mapping software</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Olog" title="Olog" class="wl">Olog</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Ontology" title="Ontology" class="wl">Ontology (philosophy)</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Problem_structuring_methods" title="Problem structuring methods" class="wl">Problem structuring methods</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Semantic_Web" title="Semantic Web" class="wl">Semantic Web</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Treemapping" title="Treemapping" class="wl">Treemapping</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Wicked_problem" title="Wicked problem" class="wl">Wicked problem</a></li></ul></td>
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<p>Decision trees are commonly used in <a href="/en/Operations_research" title="Operations research" class="wl">operations research</a>, specifically in <a href="/en/Decision_analysis" title="Decision analysis" class="wl">decision analysis</a>,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span> to help identify a strategy most likely to reach a goal, but are also a popular tool in <a href="/en/Decision_tree_learning" title="Decision tree learning" class="wl">machine learning</a>.</p>



A decision tree  is a decision support tool that uses a tree-like model of decisions and their possible consequences, including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. It is one way to display an algorithm that only contains conditional control statements. Decision trees are commonly used in operations research, specifically in decision analysis, to help identify a strategy most likely to reach a goal, but are also a popular tool in machine learning. 