Regression V/S Classification

 

Regression and Classification are two different worlds in the universe of supervised machine learning. Let us now dive into the details and difference between them. As a tech aspirant, one must know the difference between the following.

To sum up, although regression and classification are fundamental ideas in machine learning, they function according to different theories and approaches. Since regression's main objective is to predict continuous values, it can be used to forecast and analyze trends, among other things. Contrarily, categorization involves giving specific labels or categories, which makes it easier to do tasks like pattern recognition and classification. Knowing how these approaches differ from one another enables data practitioners to choose the best technique for their particular data analysis requirements.

Aspect	Regression	Classification
Output Type	Continuous values	Discrete categories or labels
Objective	Predicting trends or patterns	Assigning classes or categories
Examples	Predicting prices, forecasting values	Spam detection, image classification
Evaluation	MSE, RMSE, R-squared	Accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score
Types	Linear regression, polynomial regression, ridge regression, lasso regression, etc.	Logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines (SVM), random forests, etc.
Usage of Encoders	Typically not used	Commonly used for categorical data encoding
Difficulty	Moderate to high	Moderate
Graphs Used	Scatter plots, line plots, residual plots	Confusion matrix, ROC curve, precision-recall curve
Good Score	Lower MSE, RMSE, higher R-squared	Higher accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score

The decision between regression and classification depends on the type of data and the intended result, whether one is trying to predict stock prices or categorize photos. Through the utilization of appropriate assessment methods and the optimization of each approach's capabilities, data scientists can discover important new information and facilitate well-informed decision-making across many industries.

Image Credit:

"Regression vs. Classification." Spot Intelligence, 2 May 2023, spotintelligence.com/2023/05/02/regression-vs-classification/.