K. 5: Configuration table

The Configuration Table is a Mixed Methods tool that analyzes coding patterns by displaying how frequently the same set of codes appears in selected documents.

To create a new Configuration Table, go to Mixed Methods > Configuration Table. This will open a dialog window. You can drag and drop up to 10 codes from the Code System into this window. Or insert all activated codes by clicking Paste activated codes.

configuration table - mixed methods with MAXQDA

At the bottom you can restrict the evaluation to activated documents. Click OK to view the result of the evaluation. It is made up of two results tables: the Configuration Table and the Configuration Table – detail view.

1. Result: Configuration table

In this table the columns contain the codes you have chosen as well as two additional columns containing Frequency and Percent. Every row contains one of the combination of codes, that occured across the documents.

configuration table - mixed methods analysis with MAXQDA

Looking at this table, you can see e.g. that one documents exist which contain the first code Friends but none of the other codes. Five of the ten evaluated documents contain each of the codes Friends, Parents and Work at least once. In the configuration table it does not matter how often a code was assigned in a document. The table only shows you if a certain code was assigned in any of the documents at all.

The Frequency and Percent tell you how many / which percentage of the evaluated documents contain a certain combination.

2. Results: Configuration Table – detail view

The second results table lists all evaluated documents and shows which of the selected codes appear in these documents or not.

detail-view-configuration-table