Code Frequencies

You've successfully coded all of your data. It is now time to start the process of analysis. This can appear to be overwhelming given all of the different options that MAXQDA provides. One of the first things I like to so when trying to make sense of the data is to run basic frequencies for the data - in this case the frequency of codes, within documents.

MAXQDA makes this simple. Go to the menu for Analysis, select code frequencies. This brings up a dialog box. From there, either drag code or click Paste Activated codes.

1. Access Code Frequencies from the Analysis menu

2. Code Frequency dialog box

This will generate a table that you can easily manipulate, to look at codes by document or segments coded (multiple codes in the same document). You can view as a table, or chart, and can export to excel or to a graphic (PNG) file for a chart.

3. Code Frequency table output.

4. Code Frequency chart output.

I also like to save the output to a Free Memo (Analysis --> Free Memo). You can use the Copy to Clipboard feature in the code frequency dialog box and paste the table or chart into a memo.

5. Code Frequency output stored in a Free Memo.

Another way to examine code frequencies is to use code subcode statistics. If you have grouped your codes into hierarchies, you can simply go in the menu to "Codes -> Subcode statistics, and select codes to run descriptive frequencies on.