A method for determining a characteristic variable for opening and/or closing a flow-through opening of a solenoid valve, in which solenoid valve a solenoid coil is energized to raise an armature to open the flow-through opening for a fluid. During operation of the solenoid valve, a profile of a current in the solenoid coil being determined, and using a pattern recognition method based on artificial intelligence, the characteristic variable(s) is/are determined based on at least one section of the profile or a profile derived therefrom using a neural network. A method for applying and for training a pattern recognition method based on artificial intelligence are also described.