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CategoricalValue[cat]

gives the underlying expression associated with a categorical object cat.

CategoricalValue[scale]

gives the expressions associated to the categories of the given categorical scale.

CategoricalValue[obj,prop]

gives the specified property prop for categories or categorical scales.

Details
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Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Category Properties  
Categorical Scale Properties  
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CategoricalValue

CategoricalValue[cat]

gives the underlying expression associated with a categorical object cat.

CategoricalValue[scale]

gives the expressions associated to the categories of the given categorical scale.

CategoricalValue[obj,prop]

gives the specified property prop for categories or categorical scales.

Details

  • CategoricalValue is typically used to get properties from nominal or ordinal categories and their scales, in particular, to extract their underlying expressions.
  • The first argument of CategoricalValue can be a Nominal or Ordinal object, both when they represent a single category and a categorical scale. CategoricalValue threads over list inputs.
  • Possible properties prop include:
  • "Expression"underlying expression for a category
    "Category"individual Nominal or Ordinal category
    "Index"index of a category in the scale
    "Label"label used for typesetting of a category
    "Scale"categorical scale
    "Score"numeric score, used to sort Ordinal categories
  • CategoricalValue[obj] is equivalent to CategoricalValue[obj,"Expression"].

Examples

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Basic Examples  (3)

Convert a Nominal category to its underlying expression:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Nominal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"Heads", "Tails"}, "LabelList" -> {"Heads", "Tails"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2}], 2]]

Convert a list of Nominal categories to their underlying expressions:

Wolfram Language code: RandomChoice[Nominal[{"Heads", "Tails"}], 6]
Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[%]

Get the "Score" value for a list of Ordinal categories:

Wolfram Language code: RandomChoice[Ordinal[{"None", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "Maximum"}], 3]
Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[%, "Score"]

Scope  (9)

Category Properties  (4)

Get the scale of a nominal category:

Wolfram Language code: Nominal[{"male", "female"}, "male"]
Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[%, "Scale"]

Normalize the scale to its list of categories:

Wolfram Language code: Normal[%]

Get the scale of an ordinal category:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 7], "Scale"]

Get the "Label" value for a Ordinal category:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 7], "Label"]

Get the "Index" value for a Nominal category:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Nominal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"accrue", "choosy", "spuriously"}, "LabelList" -> {"accrue", "choosy", "spuriously"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3}], 2], "Index"]

Find the expressions of a list of categories:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[{Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 3], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 1], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 2], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 5]}, "Expression"]

Find the scores of those categories:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[{Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 3], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 1], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 2], Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}], 5]}, "Score"]

Categorical Scale Properties  (5)

Get the categories for a nominal scale:

Wolfram Language code: Nominal[{"Heads", "Tails"}]
Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[%, "Category"]

Normalize the categories to their underlying expressions:

Wolfram Language code: Normal[%]

Get the categories of an ordinal scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}]], "Category"]

Get the "Label" values for a Ordinal scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "LabelList" -> {"None", "VeryLight", "Light", "Moderate", "High", "VeryHard", "Maximum"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}]], "Label"]

Get the "Index" values for a Nominal scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Nominal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"accrue", "choosy", "spuriously"}, "LabelList" -> {"accrue", "choosy", "spuriously"}, "ScoreList" -> {1, 2, 3}]], "Index"]

Find the list of expressions for a scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"NS", "S3", "S2", "S1"}, "LabelList" -> {"Not Suitable", "Marginally Suitable", "Moderately Suitable", "Highly Suitable"}, "ScoreList" -> {0, 0.5, 0.75, 1}]], "Expression"]

Find the labels for each category in the scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"NS", "S3", "S2", "S1"}, "LabelList" -> {"Not Suitable", "Marginally Suitable", "Moderately Suitable", "Highly Suitable"}, "ScoreList" -> {0, 0.5, 0.75, 1}]], "Label"]

Find the scores for all categories:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"NS", "S3", "S2", "S1"}, "LabelList" -> {"Not Suitable", "Marginally Suitable", "Moderately Suitable", "Highly Suitable"}, "ScoreList" -> {0, 0.5, 0.75, 1}]], "Score"]

For categorical scale inputs, the "Scale" property returns the input scale:

Wolfram Language code: CategoricalValue[Ordinal[Association["CategoryList" -> {"NS", "S3", "S2", "S1"}, "LabelList" -> {"Not Suitable", "Marginally Suitable", "Moderately Suitable", "Highly Suitable"}, "ScoreList" -> {0, 0.5, 0.75, 1}]], "Scale"]
Wolfram Research (2026), CategoricalValue, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2026), CategoricalValue, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2026. "CategoricalValue." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2026). CategoricalValue. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_categoricalvalue, author="Wolfram Research", title="{CategoricalValue}", year="2026", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_categoricalvalue, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={CategoricalValue}, year={2026}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/CategoricalValue.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}