Classification is the ordering or arrangement by classes.
Basically, the classification will imply the search in a whole of all those things that keep or share some type of relationship in order to group them. Generally, the main objective of the classification is to find the best possible order, that is, the clearest, so that, when the time comes to search for a certain element that has been classified, it is easier to find: that is, primarily , the end of all classification.
Now they can be done thousands of ratings different, based on the most varied criteria. Companies can be classified by their origin, type or capital they have. Plants can also be classified according to their habitat, the characteristics of their leaves, etc. Likewise, they can be classified from books to the living beings of planet Earth themselves.
It is worth recognizing that the classification is inherent to the systematization of the sciences, for which from the very birth of the scientific disciplines they have been informed multiple classification methods. The advent and mass dissemination of computer resources have made it possible for classification strategies to be improved and simplified, which is why data processing with information ordering is currently within everyone's reach.
Meanwhile, we will discuss some of the most common types of classification below.
The taxonomy or biological classification It is the one that deals with ordering organisms in a classification system that has a hierarchy of taxa (related organisms). The modern classification of living beings divides them into 5 kingdoms (animal, plant, fungi, protists and moneras), with successive subdivision into smaller taxa (type or phylum, class, order, family, genus and species).
Then this the periodic classification or periodic table which is the one that distributes and organizes the different chemical elements, according to certain types of characteristics. One of the most common may be the one that starts from the ordering of the physical properties of atoms. This constitutes an interesting example of classification, since the parameter chosen for the ordering is the atomic number (number of protons present in the atomic nucleus of a given element), but the system also allows other informative variables to be included for each of the 92 natural elements and the multiplicity of artificial elements generated in the laboratory.
There is also the classification to order doctoral theses or better known as UNESCO classification since it was created by the aforementioned international organization and that starts with two, four and six digits, for example code 11: logic, code 12: mathematics, and so on. This system, beyond its digital systematization, continues to be the one chosen by this division of the United Nations dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge.
Meanwhile, the classification of books, which we talked about above, is called universal decimal classification or CDU and she is in charge of the ordering of books in libraries. What this does is divide knowledge into 10 large fields, each of these will carry a number, such is the case of 1 for books on philosophy and psychology, with this modality. This circuit is universal and allows the exchange of information about catalogs between libraries around the world.
Likewise, drugs are ordered by a classification system in which their international generic name and therapeutic properties participate. Similarly, the World Health Organization has proposed its International Classification of Diseases (ICD), now in its 10th edition (ICD-10). This strategy makes it possible to share data and information on the prevalence and incidence of the most varied conditions among professionals around the world, thus overcoming language barriers or the use of localisms to define a disease.
Finally, it is interesting to recognize that classifications, whatever the desired order, are part of the daily life of human beings, beyond the strictly academic or scientific sphere. As simple practical examples, classification systems are elements as common as the ordering of the streets, the addresses of the homes, the coding of the traffic lights, the monetary system, the assignment of grades in a school or university exam, the award scales. in jobs and wages and other endless parameters that hide in all cases a form of classification...
