What Maximum number of category options for categories?

Support - Assistance technique
1

Is the addition of an unlimited number of category options for categories within a category possible?

As I need about 1000 category option in one category, but I afraid if this will get some things bad later. So, could u please provide me with all negative things will be happen in case. Best

2

HIE
I am not sure if I understood your question correctly, but I can say that the system provides an unlimited number in the sense that I have never encountered any restrictions in terms of creating COs. I can create as many as I want. Could you please elaborate on your question? What prompted you to ask such a question?
Regards

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3

I updated my question please read it again and thanks

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: The DHIS2 Online Academy is introducing new courses on our updated training platform!

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Dear @sami.oracle10g

Firstly, let’s set aside DHIS2 for a moment. It seems impractical to assign 1000 category options under a single category. The fundamental purpose of a category is to group category options together that are intended to be used simultaneously by one or more data elements or indicators. Thus, the question arises: Is it feasible to have an indicator or data element that utilizes 1000 category options? My answer is no—this is impractical. Even finding a data element that uses 100 category options would be exceedingly rare.

Therefore, my advice to you is not to combine category options that do not function cohesively.

I acknowledge that my view might be biased. Could you please provide more reasoning behind your preference for a single category to encompass 1000 category options?

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7

Mr.Sami Yassin,

Yeah you can add more than 1000, I have used 2000 category options in one category.

Regards
Yousafzai
Kabul , Afghanistan

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Dear @Shapr0019
The reason is to generate monthly reports for approximately 1000 Community Health Workers (CHWs) that include their names,

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If we assumed the category options is the name of CHWs my question is
Can you generate the reports for all category option of category?

how is the performance and flexibility?

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Dear @Gassim
Could please provide me with your and DHIS2 team recommendation. As this is top urgent issue.

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Yeah Sami Yassin, I have generated report for all.

Regards
Yousafzai
Kabul, Afghanistan

12

In Data visualizer all the options will be available for all health facilities within the district so how did you manage to remove the duplication of options and keeps only options which had a relation with their health facilities.
For example:
District Dog has 2 facilities 1 and 2
Facility 1 has A and B options
Faciliry 2 has X and Y options
In data visualizer after adding category die data is shown as:
Facility 1 A
Facility 1 B
Facility 1 X
Facility 1 Y

Facility 2 A
Facility 2 B
Facility 2 X
Facility 2 Y

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14

Hi @sami.oracle10g

Sorry for the delay. It seems I’d go with @Shapr0019 suggestions. However, I will see if I can get input about this. Thanks!

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Hi @sami.oracle10g what exact do you want now .

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Hi @sami.oracle10g

A couple notes on this. Category options generally relate to a disaggregation that is somewhat stable. Using them for CHWs, which will likely vary over time, can be problematic as the category model does not lend it self well to constant variation over time (some changes are ok of course). An additional problem would be your data entry form, which would contain however many rows * 1000 columns at minimum for each data element using this category/category combo (if you are combing this category with some other category/categories in your category combo, then we are having an exponential increase of course). Anaylsis of these large tables, at least within the web interface, could also be impacted. Analytics may also have challenges running correctly as the data increases over time.

Has there been any discussion of potentially using the tracker model for this purpose, where you register each CHW and enter related data to the services they provide this way instead?

Creating a report per CHW would be more flexible (you could just filter via their ID, name or other unique details), and could also make reports containing information on many CHWs through the line list app. This would allow you to add, remove, change CHWs more frequently as well. I would also agree with @Shapr0019 that is this is not a particularly appropriate use of the category model for many reasons.

You may want to review a couple resources on creating categories that discuss some of these best practices, in particular that you should exercise caution when updating existing category combinations after they have been created.

We also have a very detailed CHIS implementation guide where we discuss several approaches for setting up CHWs

Thanks

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thanks a lot, already I have used the tracker model for this purpose. in this model, I register each CHW and enter related data to the services they provide this way instead.

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