Hoboken is best known for his J. Haydn, Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis (published 1957) a catalogue of the compositions of Joseph Haydn. Haydn's works are often referred to by their "Hoboken number" (usually abbreviated to "Hob" or just "H"), taken from this catalogue.
Unlike Ludwig von Köchel's catalogue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works, or Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Franz Schubert's works, which are both arranged chronologically by date of composition, Hoboken's catalogue, like Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of Johann Sebastian Bach's works, is arranged by form of work. All the symphonies, for example, are in category I, all string quartets are in category III, piano sonatas are in category XVI, and so on.