What is Classification in Machine Learning

Classification is a type of supervised learning that predicts a category or label rather than a numerical value. In simple terms, classification answers questions like "which group does this belong to."

Imagine sorting emails into two folders, spam or not spam. There is no numerical value involved here, just a decision between fixed categories. This is exactly the kind of problem classification is built for.

Where classification is used in real life

• Identifying whether an email is spam or not spam.
• Diagnosing whether a medical scan shows a disease.
• Recognizing handwritten digits as numbers from 0 to 9.
• Predicting whether a customer will stay or leave a service.

The core idea behind classification is learning patterns that separate different categories, then using those patterns to correctly label new, unseen data.