About Queries

NVivo provides different types of queries that enable you to question your data, find patterns and pursue ideas. You can save queries, re-run them through new data and track the evolution of results.

Types of Queries

You can create the following types of queries:

• Text Search

• Coding

• Matrix Coding

• Compound

• Coding Comparison

Query Properties

Properties include all the information required to set-up the query, such as:

• Name (only required if you save the query)

• Search criteria and items included in search

• Directions for how and where the query results should be saved after running it

During query set-up you can choose to save these properties by clicking the Add to Project checkbox. You can then re-run the query as required.

Like other project items, you can organize your queries into folders.

When you run a query, the results are displayed in Detail View.

Query Results

Results include all the project items that match the specified criteria and scope that you defined in the query properties.

NVivo provides a number of ways to handle the results of a query. You can:

• Preview the results without saving them (the default)

• Preview the results and then save them in nodes or sets

• Specify save options during query setup—before running the query

Refer to Handling Query Results for more information.

Saving Results in the Results Folder

You can save query results as a node in the Results folder—a good place to keep result nodes until you decide to add them to your node system. While the node is in the Results folder, you can view the query that generated it. You can move the node into a free node, tree node or case folder but it is no longer linked to the query. You cannot code at nodes in the Results folder.

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