Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 01/27/06 00:40

Mike (michael.matthys@hotmail.com) writes:
> In this structure the user can add as many data fields to a customer as
> he wants (e.g. Country, City, Email, Phone, ...). I have added triggers
> which create a view similar to a pivot (I am working in SQL 2000) and
> add triggers to the view so it is insertable, deletable and updateable.
>
> What I would like to do, is allow the user to create new fields where
> the values are based upon a calculation. This calculation would be done
> through a formula similar to what he would do e.g. in excel (this
> formula is stored in the dimFormula field then).
>...
> For example. Let's assume, the user wants to add a rating (field called
> 'Rating') to his customers based upon the result of 'AvgSales. He
> enters the formula 'if([AvgSales] > 2500, 'A', 'B')'.

I can only echo "ZeldorBlat" don't do this in SQL. If you had been on
SQL 2005, you could possibly have used CLR modules for the task.

But I wonder if you are not barking up the wrong tree entirely. Have
you looked at Analysis Services? I'm completely ignorant about Analysis
Services myself, but I would not be surprised if it has some support
for what you are trying to do.

If you are dead set on doing this in SQL 2000, you have to choices:
1) require that the user uses T-SQL syntax, for instance
CASE WHEN [AvgSales] THEN 'A' ELSE 'B' END
2) Define you own forumla language, and parse it in client code and
define the columns in the views as the users defines his formulas.

Beside AS, you could also investigate what 3rd party products out
there that may address your needs.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx

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