Using the Auto Code Dataset Wizard

The Auto Code Dataset Wizard is displayed when you choose to auto code a dataset—refer to Automatic coding in dataset sources for information on how to launch the Wizard.

Refer to Approaches to analyzing datasets for an overview of the approaches you can take to coding and classifying the content of datasets.

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Choose to create nodes for each column or each row
Create nodes for each column
Create nodes for each row

Choose to create nodes for each column or each row

On the first step of the wizard, you must choose whether you want to create nodes based on column names or row values. The options you get later in this wizard depend on your choice in this first step.

For example, if your dataset contains survey responses in the following structure:

Respondent	Sex	Sex	Question 1 Natural Environment	Question 2 Water Quality
DE001	Male	52	Becoming poorer with pollution due to chemical runoff from local farms	Important for marine nurseries
DE002	Female	35	Priceless and vulnerable to pollution from over development	Good for now but needs to be monitored

Then you can choose:

Code at nodes for each column to create a node for all Question 1 responses, and another node for all Question 2 responses.
Code at nodes for each row to group everything that a particular respondent has said, by creating a node for DE001, and another node for DE002. Everything the respondents said in response to Question 1 and Question 2 will be grouped at their respective nodes.

Refer to Approaches to analyzing datasets for more information on the different approaches you can take to analyzing the content of a dataset.

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Create nodes for each column

If you choose Create nodes for each column (on step 1 of the wizard), then as you move from step-to-step of the wizard, you will be asked to:

Wizard step	Description
Choose whether to code all rows or filtered rows.	This step is only displayed if a filter is applied to the dataset—choose whether you want to use all rows when auto coding, or only filtered rows.
Select the columns you want to create as nodes.	Select the columns that you want to create nodes for. The preview area at the bottom of the wizard shows the nodes that will be created based on the options you have selected (you can choose a location for the nodes in the next step).
Select a location for the nodes.	Select the parent node and folder location. If you want to code at nodes that already exist in your project, you must select the parent node and location so that the hierarchy you are creating matches the hierarchy that already exists in your project. If you select a different parent node or folder location, new nodes will be created and coded at. Decide whether you want to turn on aggregation for parent nodes—if you select this option, then all the content coded at the children is included in the parent node. The preview area at the bottom of the wizard shows the node structures that will be created, and the content that will be coded to the leaf nodes in the hierarchy.

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Create nodes for each row

If you choose Create nodes for each row (on step 1 of the wizard), then as you move from step-to-step of the wizard, you will be asked to:

Wizard step	Description
Choose whether to code all rows or filtered rows	This step is only displayed if a filter is applied to the dataset—choose whether you want to use all rows when auto coding, or only filtered rows.
Select the columns that contain values you want to use as node names	Select the column that contains the names of your nodes—these are the nodes that will contain the coded content. For example, if you want to create a node to represent each person you surveyed, you could select the column which contains their name or some other identifier. You should ensure that each cell in this column contains a different value. If two people share the same name, only a single node will be created. (Optional) Choose whether the nodes should be nested into a hierarchy. For example, if you surveyed high school students in three schools, you might create a node structure that has a parent node for each school and child nodes for each student. You can select classifying columns which contain the values you want to use to build the hierarchy. Click the Filter and Group button if you want to further refine the node hierarchy that will be created by: Filtering the row values used to create nodes—for example, if you want to create nodes based on the values in the column School, and some cells contain the value Unknown, you can choose to exclude this value when you create your node structure. Grouping the row values that will be used to create nodes—for example, if a column contains the ages of your survey respondents, you can group the ages into ranges, so that you create a node for each age range, rather than a node for each age. The preview area at the bottom of the wizard, shows the nodes that will be created based on the options you have selected on this step of the wizard. Click the Expand buttons to expand the hierarchy. Only the leaf nodes in the hierarchy are coded to. If you are not satisfied with the structure, try changing the options on this step.
Select the columns that contain the content you want to code at these nodes	Select the (codable) columns that contain the content you want to code at the nodes you selected in the previous step. For example, if you want to code what people said in response to the survey questions, then you would choose the columns containing their survey responses. The preview area at the bottom of the dialog shows the node structures that will be created, and the content that will be coded to the leaf nodes in the hierarchy. Click the Expand buttons to expand the hierarchy.
Choose a location for the nodes	Select the parent node and folder location for node hierarchy. If you want to code at nodes that already exist in your project, you must select the correct parent node and folder location so that the hierarchy you are creating matches the hierarchy that already exists in your project. If you select a different location, new nodes will be created and coded at. Decide whether you want to turn on aggregation for parent nodes—if you select this option, then all the content coded at the children is shown in the parent node. Refer to Aggregate nodes for more information. The preview area at the bottom of the dialog shows the node structures that will be created, and the content that will be coded to the leaf nodes in the hierarchy. Click the Expand buttons to expand the hierarchy.

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