Comma Separated values in a Column of a Table

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Comma Separated values in a Column of a Table

Author

Topic

subbarao
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 02:23:00

Hi,
I want a column in a database table to store comma separated values.
So can I store it as a string type(varchar,nchar) using commas?
What are the other alternatives provided in Sql Server 2005

--Subba Rao

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 02:30:38

This is not a good idea. You should normalize your database design instead. Please show us exactly what you are trying to do and why.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

subbarao
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 02:45:30

quote:
Originally posted by tkizer

This is not a good idea. You should normalize your database design instead. Please show us exactly what you are trying to do and why.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

Hi,
My requirement:
I have a table called geofence. It has a primary key geofence_id. Each geofence consists of a set of latitudes and latitudes. So I defined two columns latitudes and longitudes and their type is varchar
So in general how do people implement these types of requirements in relational databases?

--Subba Rao

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 02:49:02

You haven't explained what part of your data is comma separated. What you have described so far is good.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

subbarao
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 02:51:14

values in latitudes, longitudes columns

--Subba Rao

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 03:08:31

What values though? We have geofences here too and we don't store comma separated values. We store the lat in one column, lon in one column (both as floats), then both lengths of the geofence in two different columns: eastwestlength and northsouthlength.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

subbarao
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 03:57:42

Hi,
Our requirement of geofence data contains not just one latitude value and one longitude value, but collection of them

--Subba Rao

SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 05:17:01

You can try to separate the values into two colums, Lat and Lon. Make a calculated column with the same name today so that you app still works. And then follow Tara's advice.

Peter Larsson
Helsingborg, Sweden

jezemine
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2886 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-13 : 09:19:53

a bounding box is defined by two points on the globe, so you need 4 columns to store lat1, long1, lat2, long2.

if you combine these to 2 columns you'll be sorry.

or rather, you'll be back posting here in 6 weeks asking "how do I separate CSV stored in a single column?"

elsasoft.org

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-15 : 18:52:46

Our geofences use one lat and one lon. The lat and lon are the center of the geofence. We then have a length for height and width. I believe our geofences are square, but the data shouldn't have to change for circles.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

jezemine
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2886 Posts

Posted - 2007-07-15 : 21:40:23

makes sense, unless you need rectangles - which is generally what I need in apps

elsasoft.org

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