1. A computer-based method of mining one or more patterns in an input data set, the input data set being characterized by attributes, the method comprising the steps of: mapping attributes of the input data set to mapping values; and forming one or more candidate patterns as groupings of two mapping values that occur within a predefined time period; for each of the one or more candidate patterns: computing a qualification function; comparing a result of the qualification function with at least one predefined threshold value; and identifying the one or more candidate patterns whose qualification function results are one of greater than and equal to the at least one predefined threshold value as one or more qualified patterns.