Q.A researcher arranges Gujarat's annual cotton production figures for the years 2015 to 2024 in order of year. Which type of classification is this?

Data arranged strictly by the time period it belongs to — year by year, month by month — is classified on the basis of time.

Classification can be done on four bases: geographical (by place), chronological (by time), qualitative (by an attribute), and quantitative (by a measurable variable).

Here, the cotton production figures are arranged strictly in order of the year to which they belong (2015, 2016, …, 2024) — the basis of grouping is time, not place, not an attribute, and not the magnitude of a measurable variable used to form class intervals.

• (a) Qualitative would apply if data were grouped by an attribute like 'irrigated vs non-irrigated land' — not the case here.
• (b) Quantitative classification groups a measurable variable into class intervals (e.g., production grouped into 'below 10 lakh bales', '10–20 lakh bales', etc.) — here the years themselves are simply listed in order, not grouped into value-classes.
• (d) Geographical would apply if production were arranged district-wise or state-wise — not the case here.

Since the arrangement is purely by year, this is chronological (temporal) classification.

Students sometimes confuse chronological classification with quantitative classification because years are numbers — but the years here are only labels for time periods, not a measured variable being grouped into class intervals; the classification basis is time, not magnitude.