At 07:29 AM 19/04/2007, you wrote:

>hello there. i am trying to work out the best way to utilise Firebird
>in order to maximise performance for a certain business requirement. i
>would be grateful for any advice.
>
>i am developing a database that must allow for user defined fields. to
>summarise, every CONTACT in my database has a CONTACT TYPE. and the
>UDF's are set on a per CONTACT TYPE basis.
>
>when the WinForm loads, my client wants to fill a grid with every
>contact and their associated UDF's. exactly what information is
>retrieved is based on a grid filter i.e. the user can choose which
>columns of information they wish to display.
>
>the main problem i have is how to join and return the UDF information
>in an efficient manner. this is a problem because the UDF description
>is a row value within the table, rather than a column header.
>
>for example, lets say the user chooses to display only the grid
>columns FORENAME, SURNAME and HAIRCOLOR (where HAIRCOLOR is a UDF). in
>this case in order to select the HAIRCOLOR alone i must be doing
>something like this:
>
>SELECT udfvalue FROM contacttype_udf WHERE contacttype = X and
>udfdescription = 'HAIRCOLOR'.
>
>this is ok when i try to run it as a standalone query, but i am having
>to do this for potentially a lot of UDF's and CONTACTS. any advice
>much appreciated. thanks.

What do you mean? I guess you have to show us the output you want to
achieve...

./heLen