Classification is the process of predicting the class of given data points. Classes are sometimes called as targets/ labels or categories. Classification predictive modeling is the task of approximating a mapping function (f) from input variables (X) to discrete output variables (y).

For example, spam detection in email service providers can be identified as a classification problem. This is s binary classification since there are only 2 classes as spam and not spam. A classifier utilizes some training data to understand how given input variables relate to the class. In this case, known spam and non-spam emails have to be used as the training data. When the classifier is trained accurately, it can be used to detect an unknown email.

Classification belongs to the category of supervised learning where the targets also provided with the input data. There are many applications in classification in many domains such as in credit approval, medical diagnosis, target marketing etc.

There are two types of learners in classification as lazy learners and eager learners.

Lazy learners simply store the training data and wait until a testing data appear. When it does, classification is conducted based on the most related data in the stored training data. Compared to eager learners, lazy learners have less training time but more time in predicting.

Ex. k-nearest neighbor, Case-based reasoning

Eager learners construct a classification model based on the given training data before receiving data for classification. It must be able to commit to a single hypothesis that covers the entire instance space. Due to the model construction, eager learners take a long time for train and less time to predict.

Ex. Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, Artificial Neural Networks