Best way to store multiple selections

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Best way to store multiple selections

Author

Topic

richardlaw
Yak Posting Veteran

68 Posts

Posted - 2011-02-20 : 17:28:37

Hi

In the past, I've been happy working with relationship tables where I store the ID of a value from another table. Simple. But what is the best way to store multiple selections - for example, the user selects all appropriate. In this case, I won't know how many (if at all), and what data type would I use?

Many thanks
Richard

Richard Law

dataguru1971
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1464 Posts

Posted - 2011-02-20 : 21:34:57

That question makes little sense. I am not sure you will get answer. Why does datatype matter for what a user selects?

Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

LoztInSpace
Aged Yak Warrior

940 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-03 : 00:03:03

I think the answer you are looking for is "store more than one row - one for each selection in whatever type you store a single selection"

Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-03 : 09:40:28

I think you're looking for a junction table.


declare @questions table (
  questionID int,
  question varchar(200),
  ...
  )

declare @answers table (
  questionid int
  answerid int,
  answer varchar(200),
  ...
  )

declare @question_answers (
  @questionid int,
  @answerid int,
  @userid int
  )

- Lumbago
My blog-> http://thefirstsql.com/2011/02/07/regular-expressions-advanced-string-matching-and-new-split-function-sql-server-2008-r2/

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