--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Nando Dessena <nando@d...>
wrote:

>
> Adam,
>
> A> To me, it makes more sense to include a record for each answer,

as

> A> well as the answer given unless all questions are compulsory

(where

> A> you could save a bit of data storage).
>
> IMO the structure, or metadata, of a questionnaire should be stored
> separately from the answers, or data, otherwise you end up wasting a
> lot of space and, more importantly, duplicating information about

how

> a questionnaire is structured. Perform a left join between metadata
> and data to get a NULL for a missing answer.
>
> To make an analogy, storing all 600 rows regardless would be kinda
> like storing a table definition once for each record of the table.
>
> A> It may be important to distinguish between the questions that

have

> A> not been asked and the questions they answered no to.
>
> Of course. That's why I'd store the answer to each question
> (yes/no or whatever); a missing row is an answer not given.
>

So we agree then. Storing only the yes in the table and assuming the
others are no's is not usually a good way to go. I did suggest this
exact thing to him in his follow up thread.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firebird-support/message/68599

Adam