On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 2:10 AM, tedd <tedd.sperling@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi gang: > > I just completed writing a survey that has approximately 180 questions in > it and I need a fresh look at how to store the results so I can use them > later. > > The survey requires the responder to identify themselves via an > authorization script. After which, the responder is permitted to take the > survey. Everything works as the client wants so there are no problems there. > > My question is how to store the results? > > I have the answers stored in a session variable, like: > > $_SESSION['answer']['e1'] > $_SESSION['answer']['e2'] > $_SESSION['answer']['e2a'] > $_SESSION['answer']['e2ai'] > $_SESSION['answer']['p1'] > $_SESSION['answer']['p1a'] > $_SESSION['answer']['p1ai'] > > and so on. As I said, there are around 180 questions/answers. > > Most of the answers are integers (less than 100), some are text, and some > will be null. > > Each "vote" will have a unique number (i.e., time) assigned to it as well > as a common survey id. > > My first thought was to simply record the "vote" as a single record with > the answers as a long string (maybe MEDIUMTEXT), such as: > > 1, 1268501271, e1, 1, e2, 16, e2a, Four score and ..., e2a1, , > > Then I thought I might make the data xml, such as: > > <survey_id>1</survey_id><vote_id>1268501271</vote_id><e1>1</e1><e2>16</e2><e2a>Four > score and ...</e2a><e2ai></e2ai> > > That way I can strip text entries for <> and have absolute control over > question separation. > > Then I thought I could make each question/answer combination have it's own > record while using the vote_id to tie the "vote" together. That way I can > use MySQL to do the heavy lifting during the analysis. While each "vote" > creates 180 records, I like this way best. > > Then I thought, what would you guys do? So, what would you guys do? > > Keep in mind that this survey must evaluated in terms of answers, such as > "Of the ones who answered e1 as 1 how did they answer e2?" > > If there is something wrong with my preference, please let me know. > > Thanks, > > tedd > > -- > ------- > http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > Hi Ted, How about saving the array in serialize variable to TEXT column $answer = serialize($_SESSION['answer']); to get the original array value simply unserialize the value from the database.. Paragasu
