dear db gurus,

how do i handle this situation (in my db design)? i have a survey question such as:

1. On a scale from 1-10, how do you rate the instructors performance?

my original idea was to have in the response table a field that can hold values 1 to 10. however, is it better to have a record for each choice 1 to 10 where the field holds only 0 or 1?

e.g.

Design 1

responseTable
-----------------
response1 3

Design 2

responseTable
-----------------
response1 option1 0
response1 option2 0
response1 option3 1
response1 option4 0
etc.
response1 option10 0

that is, the participant rated their instructor a 3.

IMO, option 1 is the better choice. A relational database is more flexible and handles data that is in columns quite well. Trying to process data that is in rows is much more difficult.

thanks for the help. that was my original thought.

Is 1 good or bad?

urquel, you tell me.

That's why I asked. When administering a survey, you have to explicity state what a numeric answer means.

The survey question states as follows:

1. On a scale from 1-10, how do you rate the instructors performance?

To me, 1 could be the best or the worst. But I can't relate a number to performance unless I know what you mean.

...what you mean. yeah, you are right...1 could be bad or good, theoretically. however, the 10 point scale is an intuitive scale, and usually needs no explanation, but i guess i better include that in the directions.

either way, the "instructor rating" was just a dummy example...and in fact, the 10 point scale is irrelevant to my design confusion....it could have been 1-7, 1-5, just not 0 or 1.