Classify nodes (set attribute values to record information)
You can use node classifications to record demographic and descriptive information about the people you interviewed or surveyed. You can create the node classifications that suit your project and record information about institutions, places or any other type of 'case' that is relevant to your research.
In this topic
- Why classify nodes?
- How do I classify nodes?
- Classify one or more nodes
- Set the attribute values for a node
- See all nodes in a classification
- Set attribute values via the classification sheet
- Classify nodes by importing a classification sheet
- Change the classification of a node
Why classify nodes?
Projects typically contain nodes for themes or topics but they may also have nodes for people, organizations or other 'cases'. 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, this node has demographic attributes—you specify these attributes by 'classifying' the node. As you code more content at classified nodes 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 nodes?
Before you can classify nodes you need to setup (or import) node classifications. Node 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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Sex
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Organization
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Industry
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Sector
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Size
When you create a node (or edit its properties) you can assign it to a classification and define the attributes:
| Classification | Person | ||||||||
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Classify one or more nodes
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In List View, select the nodes you want to classify.
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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.
The selected nodes are assigned to the classification but you need to define the attribute values for each node—refer to Set the attribute values for a node.
NOTE
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You must create at least one classification before you can classify nodes, refer to Create node classifications for more information.
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You can also set the classification for a selected node in the Node Properties dialog.
Set the attribute values for a node
To set the attribute values for a node that has already been assigned to classification (perhaps you classified multiple nodes at once):
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In List View, select the node.
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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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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.
NOTE You can also set the attribute values for a classified node via the classification sheet—refer to Use the classification sheet to see attribute values for more information.
See all nodes in a classification
To see all the nodes 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.
Set attribute values via the classification sheet
The classification sheet lists all the nodes in a classification and shows the attribute values set for each node.
For example, you could open the Respondent classification sheet to see all nodes that represent survey respondents along with their demographic attributes:
| Age group | Sex | Country | Occupation | |
| Nodes\respondent\Anna | 18-25 | female | UK | teacher |
| Nodes\respondent\Jack | 25-35 | male | UK | scientist |
| Nodes\respondent\Maria | 35-45 | female | USA | diver |
You can enter or update node attribute values via the classification sheet.
Refer to Use the classification sheet to see attribute values for more information.
Classify nodes 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.
Change the classification of a node
CAUTION Changing the classification of a node may result in the loss of data—for example, if you assign a node 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 node
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In List View, select the node.
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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 source.
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Click Done.
NOTE
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When you change from one node 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.