We recently had a project that involved putting together a survey. This survey was comprised of almost 150 questions. As we brainstormed the best way to construct the data tables to store this information, the thought of a table with 150 columns made us cringe. Time constraints also called for something we could put together relatively quickly. We decided to create a table that stored each question as a row of data. Then we made a table that referenced the primary key of the question table along with the user’s answer to that question. So instead of having a table with 150 columns, we have one table with 150 rows and another table that stores a data row for each question answered on the survey. Now if a question needs to be added or removed from the survey all that needs to happen is add or remove a row from the questions table.
It also made collecting the survey data through a ASP.NET Web Site a lot easier, but that can be a future blog topic.
All of that was a setup for displaying the following solution that we created. In order to display the data correctly for reporting purposes we needed to be able to transform the 150 rows of data in the questions table into a table with that data as column names. In simpler terms, we needed to convert a set of data rows in table columns in a temporary table. Then we needed to be able to populate that table with the data from the answers table.
Here is the solution we came up with using the power of a stored procedures in Microsoft SQL Server.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Survey_Answers] AS BEGIN SET NOCOUNT ON; -- Declare variables DECLARE @QuestionID varchar(20), @sql varchar(MAX) -- Create empty temporary table with id column CREATE TABLE #tempTable (SurveyID int NULL) ---- Insert Columns into pivot table ---- -- Declare cursor to loop through table DECLARE curQuestions CURSOR FOR SELECT QuestionID FROM Survey_Questions OPEN curQuestions FETCH NEXT FROM curQuestions INTO @QuestionID WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS=0 BEGIN -- Defines each column SET @sql = 'ALTER TABLE #tempTable ADD ' + @QuestionID + ' varchar(1024) NULL' -- Executes the command which creates the column in the temp table EXEC(@sql) FETCH NEXT FROM curQuestions INTO @QuestionID END -- Clean up cursor CLOSE curQuestions DEALLOCATE curQuestions ---- End of Insert Columns section ---- ---- Insert id values into pivot table ---- -- Create rows in temp table using IDs from Survey table INSERT INTO [#tempTable] (SurveyID) SELECT SurveyID FROM Survey ---- Insert data into pivot table ---- -- Loop through each row in Survey_Answers -- Update values in pivot table -- Declare variables DECLARE @SurveyID int, @QuestionID2 varchar(20), @Answer varchar(1024), @CurrentSurveyID int -- Initialize variables SET @CurrentSurveyID = -1 SET @sql = '' -- Declare cursor to loop through table DECLARE curAnswers CURSOR FOR SELECT Survey_Answers.SurveyID, Survey_Answers.QuestionID, Survey_Answers.Answer FROM Survey_Answers INNER JOIN Survey ON Survey_Answers.SurveyID = Survey.SurveyID ORDER BY Survey_Answers.SurveyID OPEN curAnswers FETCH NEXT FROM curAnswers INTO @SurveyID, @QuestionID2, @Answer WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS=0 BEGIN IF @CurrentSurveyId<>@SurveyId BEGIN -- This will run at the end of a set of questions related to one survey -- And initializes variables for next set of questions IF @sql<>'' BEGIN SET @sql = STUFF(@sql, LEN(@sql), 1, ' WHERE (SurveyID = ' + CONVERT(varchar, @CurrentSurveyId) + ');') EXEC(@sql) END SET @sql = 'UPDATE [#tempTable] SET' SET @CurrentSurveyId = @SurveyId END -- Update values in pivot table SET @sql = @sql + ' ' + @QuestionId2 + ' = ''' + @Answer + ''',' FETCH NEXT FROM curAnswers INTO @SurveyID, @QuestionID2, @Answer -- This section takes care of the last row since it will not go through the IF @sql<>'' code above. Uses same code as that section IF @@FETCH_STATUS = -1 BEGIN SET @sql = STUFF(@sql, LEN(@sql), 1, ' WHERE (SurveyID = ' + CONVERT(varchar, @CurrentSurveyId) + ');') EXEC(@sql) END END -- Clean up answers cursor CLOSE curAnswers DEALLOCATE curAnswers -- Select values from created table SELECT [#tempTable].*, Survey.DateCreated FROM Survey INNER JOIN [#tempTable] ON Survey.SurveyID = [#tempTable].SurveyID ORDER BY Survey.SurveyID -- Clean up the pivot table DROP TABLE #tempTable END
Let us know what you think about our approach or if you have any questions.