Classification vs Regression — The Key Difference
The output type is everything.
| Regression | Classification | |
|---|---|---|
| Output | Any number on a scale | One label from a fixed set |
| For e.g. | Crop yield = 5.3 t/ha | Email = Spam |
| Asks | How much? How many? | Which one? |
| Evaluation | MAE, RMSE, R² | Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1 |
When you see a problem, ask: is the answer a number, or a category? That question tells you which type of supervised learning to use.
Quick Check
Which of these problems is classification and not regression?