[dba-SQLServer] John Colby's problem

How about doing something like this

 utility to parse fixed length flat files in C# using XML templates

http://builder.com.com/5100-6370_14-6156780.html?tag=nl.e601

artful at rogers.com wrote:

>That's why they pay me the big bucks LOL. 
>
>Somewhat more seriously, it's not that difficult to write the code to normalize your giant table, but as I recall quite a few columns were ambiguous in their contents. That part of the problem remains troublesome. And I also detect the need for a bridge table between Surveys and Question/Answers, such that Surveys One and Two might both contain the list of Questions applying to Smokers.
> 
>A.
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: JWColby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
>To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com
>Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 6:02:45 AM
>Subject: Re: [dba-SQLServer] John Colby's problem
>
>
>LOL. I don't blame anything on you Arthur.  In fact I believe you are right,
>and I have told you that.  What you haven't provided is the "how".  Doing
>what you propose requires an entire system to perform the denormalization.
>In fact in order to get to where I need to be I have to have a "tblSurvey"
>to hold the names of the survey lists as they come in.  My client does not
>refer to a specific field, he says "the smoker list".  The survey list has
>to be parent to a "tblSurveyField" which holds all of the field names of the
>various lists, with a FK back to the survey table.  Then the survey field
>DATA has to be held in a table child to tblSurveyField with a fk back to
>tblSurveyField and tblPeople.  
>
>So there is this entire process, that has to be done automagically, which
>disassembles the surveys, adds the survey names to tblSurvey, survey fields
>to tblSurveyField, people to tblPeople, and data to tblSurveyData.  You know
>(because you have seen it) that the very first table has 700 fields.  This
>is not a job for "manual labor".  I would spend a month just normalizing
>that one table.  
>
>You are long on "this is what you need to do" and entirely absent on "this
>is the how of doing it".  Your "this is what you need to do" is not news to
>me or anyone else.  Of course that is what is needed, I have never denied
>that and you know it.  OTOH, I am actually fill orders the way I am doing it
>now.  What we both know NEEDS to be done is "someday when the system is
>working".  My client needs (and I am giving him) answers now.
>
>  
>
>>assuming that everything is stored and indexed correctly
>>    
>>
>
>And there ya go - "assuming that everything is stored and indexed correctly"
>is your entire answer to "this is how to do it".
>
>John W. Colby
>Colby Consulting
>www.ColbyConsulting.com
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>
>
>  
>

-- 
Marty Connelly
Victoria, B.C.
Canada