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Classify cases (set attribute values to record information)
You can use case classifications to record descriptive information about the entities you are studying. You can create the case classifications that suit your project and record information about the people, institutions, places or any other type of 'case' that is relevant to your research.
In this topic
- Why classify cases?
- How do I classify cases?
- Working with a large number of cases
- Set the classification and attribute values manually
- Classify cases by importing a classification sheet
- Classify cases by auto coding a dataset
- See all cases in a classification
- Change the classification of a case
Why classify cases?
Projects typically contain nodes for themes or topics but they may also have case nodes for people, organizations or other entities. For example, consider this passage of text:
I feel very worried about climate change, especially the impact on my children. We live on the coast so I am particularly concerned about rising sea levels and the destruction of the beautiful coral reefs. The problems seem overwhelming and I don't know where to start.
You might code the passage at the following 'theme' nodes:
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climate change
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rising sea levels
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coral reefs
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feeling overwhelmed
To collect descriptive information about the speaker, you could also code the passage at a case node:
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Mary (female, aged 40)
Unlike theme nodes, case nodes can have demographic attributes—you specify these attributes by 'classifying' the case. As you code more content at cases you can use queries to ask meaningful questions—How do young women respond to the challenge of climate change? Do their attitudes differ from those of older women?
How do I classify cases?
Before you can classify nodes you need to setup (or import) case classifications. Case classifications describe the type of case—for example,
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Person
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Organization
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Institution
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Site
For each classification you can add the attributes you are interesting in collecting:
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Person
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Age group
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Country of birth
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Gender
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Organization
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Industry
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Sector
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Size
When you create a case (or edit its properties) you can assign it to a classification and define the attributes:
| Classification | Person | ||||||||
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Working with a large number of cases
If you have a lot of cases, then NVivo provides ways to speed the process up.
| What form is your data in? | Suggested approach |
| I have a text file
that contains a list of cases and their attribute values.
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Import the text file as a classification sheet containing demographic information about the participants. The cases are created when you import the classification sheet (if they do not already exist). |
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I have a dataset of survey responses including demographic information about respondents. |
Use the Auto Code Assistant to create, classify and code at case nodes representing each of the respondents. Refer to Automatic coding in dataset sources for more information. |
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A dataset containing social media data. |
Use the Auto Code Wizard to code and classify. For example, when you use the Auto Code Wizard to code to Username, cases for users are created and automatically classified—such as 'Facebook User' or 'Twitter User'. |
| I have created case nodes in my
project but they are not classified yet.
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Select a number of cases in List
View and assign a classification.
For example, select all the cases representing people you interviewed and classify them as Student. You can open the classification sheet for the classification Student and set the attribute values for each student. |
Set the classification and attribute values manually
You must create at least one classification before you can classify cases—refer to Create case classifications for more information.
IMPORTANT If you change the classification of a case after you have set the attribute values you may lose data—for example, if you assign a case to the classification person, with values for age and sex, and the new classification does not have these attributes the values are removed.
To set the attribute values for a single case:
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In List View, select the case node.
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On the Home tab, in the Item group, click Get Info (and hold down the mouse button), and then click Classification and select the classification you want to use.
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If you cannot see the classification and attribute values, click the disclosure triangle to show them.
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For each attribute, you can select an existing value or enter a new one.
Click the magnifying glass in the Value field to see the list of existing values or clear the value and start typing. As you type, the list of existing values is refined based on what you have typed so far. If you want to use the highlighted item in the list of values, press Return. Otherwise, keep typing to refine the list or enter a new attribute value.
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Click Done.
To classify and set attribute values for multiple cases:
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To set the classification, select the cases in List View and then right-click and then click Classification and select the classification you want to use. All attribute values will be set to their default values.
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To set the attribute values open the classification sheet—on the Explore tab, in the Classification Sheets group, click Case Classification Sheets and then select the classification sheet you want to open.
The classification sheet lists all the cases in a classification and shows the attribute values set for each case.
For example, you could open the Person
classification sheet to see all cases that represent survey respondents
along with their demographic attributes:
| Age group | Sex | Country | Occupation | |
| Cases\\person\Anna | 18-25 | female | UK | teacher |
| Cases\\person\Jack | 25-35 | male | UK | scientist |
| Cases\\person\Maria | 35-45 | female | USA | diver |
You can enter or update case attribute values via the classification sheet. Refer to Use the classification sheet to see attribute values for more information.
Classify cases by importing a classification sheet
If you have a text file or spreadsheet that contains demographic information about people, organizations or other cases you can import it into NVivo. For example, you could import descriptive information about the participants in a focus group.
Refer to Import (or export) classification sheets for more information.
Classify cases by auto coding a dataset
If you have a dataset source that contains information about people, organizations or other cases, you can use the auto code feature to classify the cases. For example, when you could auto code a dataset containing survey responses to create cases for each respondent, you can also choose to classify the cases with the demographic information from the classifying columns in the dataset.
Refer to Automatic coding in dataset sources for more information.
See all cases in a classification
To see all the cases in a selected classification:
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In List View, select the classification.
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On the Home tab, in the Item group, click Open.
The classification sheet is opened in Detail View. The nodes in the classification are displayed in the first column.
Change the classification of a case
CAUTION Changing the classification of a case may result in the loss of data—for example, if you assign a case to the classification person, with values for age and sex, and the new classification does not have these attributes the values are removed.
To change the classification of a case
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In List View, select the case.
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On the Home tab, in the Item group, click Get Info.
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If you cannot see the classification and attribute values, click the disclosure triangle to show them.
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From the Classification pop-up menu, select a different classification for the case.
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Click Done.
NOTE
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When you change from one case classification to another, NVivo looks for common attributes and updates the values in the new classification. If existing attributes are not available in the new classification, the values are lost. If there are different attributes in the new classification, then the values are set to the default.
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If the new classification has additional attributes, you may want to set their values now. You can also set attribute values via the classification sheet—refer to Use the classification sheet to see attribute values for more information.