Hey,

the answer is pretty exciting and searc hed some links for you to provide an answer for your question. Have fun reading them and I hope it will help you a lot:

1) http://www.theanalysisfactor.com/why-anova-and-linear-regression-are-the-same-analysis/

2) http://www.pmean.com/08/RegressionAndAnova.html

3) http://www.strath.ac.uk/aer/materials/4dataanalysisineducationalresearch/unit6/anovaandregression/

All the best from Berlin

T.

Hey,

the answer is pretty exciting and searc hed some links for you to provide an answer for your question. Have fun reading them and I hope it will help you a lot:

1) http://www.theanalysisfactor.com/why-anova-and-linear-regression-are-the-same-analysis/

2) http://www.pmean.com/08/RegressionAndAnova.html

3) http://www.strath.ac.uk/aer/materials/4dataanalysisineducationalresearch/unit6/anovaandregression/

All the best from Berlin

T.

ANOVA is a technique for partitioning the total variation in an observed response variable into components that are due to various "controllable" or "modifiable" factors, and a residual "error" component.   Here the focus is on explaining the variation due to various factors. 

Linear regression is more general and versatile technique.  It can be used for multiple purposes: to understand the relationship between a single response variable and multiple explanatory variables which can be categorical or continuous (regression); to develop a prediction model for the response variable (prediction); to evaluate the impact of an explanatory variable while adjusting for confounding variables (causal inference - under strict assumptions), and so on.  

Regression approach is readily extended to different types of responses: continuous (linear regression), binary (logistic regression), categorical (multinomial), counts (Poisson), censored time data (Cox PH regression), etc.  ANOVA, on the other hand, is limited to continuous (approximately normally distributed) variables. 

Does this make sense?

I think this video can explain the comparison between ANOVA and regression. It uses same example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHVb4MEDTsY

I hope it will be useful for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHVb4MEDTsY