James

@PaulWhite Thank you very much. That is working for me adapted to my code. And waay beyond my level of SQL. Dammit Jim I'm a dev not a DBA

thanks. I shall leave this place of general chat void of help :)

I've tried all sorts of sub queries and EXISTS. I can get the logic working but due to the clause "if credits=1" I can only get the rows where credits=1

hmm its not really worthy of a Q tbh, I dont need a full blown answer just pointer as to what approach or function to use. cheers

Is it ok to ask for some SQL help in here?

thanks @bbaird

I've read ideas such as: (1) Store everything as varchar; (2) Use Json; Neither of which take my fancy. I had the idea of separate tables for data types, so tbl_int, tbl_string, tbl_float (etc, and not those names) then the main table would store a mapping ID which would map to a specific table. Or fields with the types instead of tables such as field_int, field_float, etc and just store the value in the right field. Both of these seem rough too

Is there an elegant way to manage not knowing before hand what data type a MySQL field needs to be? Users can create their own form fields with e.g. float input, text input, int input, so as the form on a user account is not built with the DB tables I can't know the data type before hand.

@MichaelGreen thanks, more food for thought

yeah, the pro is the live data that can be used as "published" has integrity in the database

definitely something I can think about though as it is a solution :)

interesting. I guess the only drawback there is managing dupe tables. Not totally dupe as things can be invalid/null etc. But the structure would be duplicated.

I feel allowing null in a DB field that is actually not null is wrong, as then DB data integrity relies upon Model/App validation to make sure data has integrity. Any thoughts about this? Or perhaps I need some other layer that temporary stores "in progress" data?

I want to allow any form in any tab to be partially saved, to allow an in "progress state". So part of a form or forms will be saved to the DB. However, this means a mandatory form field (i.e. not an empty value) can't have a database field that is "not null" as the partial state might be that mandatory field has no value yet.

I have a collection of different HTML forms that collect and save data, each form is in a separate tab on the same page (Javascript just shows a specific form when a tab is selected). Each form in each tab are part of a single module (e.g. "User Questions") and the data collected from all forms is stored against one UserQuestions ID in the DB.

class foo
{
    $var;
}

thanks for thinking about it tho :)

yeah those were our first words, but we're gonna poke it for a bit in case something magic can happen

we doubt it will be possible, given the laws to protect such data, but not giving up just yet

just trying to find if it's even possible

we'll look at consent later. urm, that sounds dodgy, it's a proof of concept at the moment

so we can caputre their current address and name from a drivers license scan. we're struggling to find how we could get their 3 years previous employment. I feel I might have to email HMRC and ask them, ut fear they'll just say no

was james, which means you should flag it to an admin or you'll enter into rollback war

just needs editing imo

too much profanity for any site really. one little word can be ignored but not multiple

more API based, but any info at all would be good as I cannot find anything whatsoever

hey all. Does anyone have an idea of what UK organisation might release previous employment data? We're looking to build an app that does this in an automated way so couldn't be like gov website with the forms to fill in

@anongoodnurse Once OP had edited in a valid discussion point to their Question my Answer seemed obsolete, as I was mostly highlighting the vagueness in their Question. If you feel it still adds to the discussion feel free to re-open, or I can if preferable :)

Nice question! On a lighter/funny side, this reminds me very much of Karl Pilkington: Doppleganger (Youtube vid) Where he states "How would I know which one I am" :D (Link warning: Profanities/potentially offensive content)

Ahh cushty, I can chill with my dialect now then, cheers like mush

Wait, what room am I in, this isn't tavern. scared as a northerner with not-so-perfect English...

@MARamezani I don't think SE devs have fingernails give the recent changes

I really dont mind. as long as the bug is fixed which Shog is sorting (well, eventually...)

I'll probs delete my answer soon anyway ;)

It's a noobs privvy

No, I get all credit :P

@MARamezani Howdy

Hopefully now it's edited others will remove dvotes too

@Lamart I've edited your question, and swapped my downvote to upvote, as it's completely a different thing now. (I just disagreed with increasing rep required for chat room as per your original)