Note 1: I REPHRASED THE QUESTION. It now consists of Suppliers and Orders, instead of Cars and Parts.
Note 2: THIS PROBLEM IS HYPOTHETICAL.
My goal is to understand how to create object counters.
For regulatory requirements, I need TO SEQUENTIALLY NUMBER EACH Order for each of the suppliers.
I'm Using 'Entity Framework` with Sql Server.
In my hypothetical example, I have a Supplier class and an Order class.
Each supplier has Orders. Each order has a product and a quantity. Meaning, it states which product was ordered from the supplier and how many of it.
I need to be able to create counters, like an auto incremented number, to count the orders FOR EACH supplier.
For regulatory reasons, each supplier must sequentially number its orders, in the order of creation, and using an integer only.
When we examine an Order, We should know by its OrderCountForSupplier column, what was its order of creation (a DateTime / TimeStamp column is insufficient by the regulatory authorities. They require such a counter).
For simplicity of this question, an order cannot be deleted (it's status can change, but it cannot be deleted).
It's very important for me to have a solution which includes the technical/programming way, not only theoretic way.
I've made a diagram in order to explain my problem in the most clear way possible:
I have a way that might work, and would be glad to hear feedback.
I'm thinking of an external table/tables, to hold the counters. Something like:
Supplier Order Counters Table
| SupplierId | OrderCountForSupplier
------------------------
| 54654 | 3
| 78787 | 2
| 99666 | 4
Would I need a trigger in order to increment the OrderCountForSupplier counter on each insertion, for each supplier?
If not - how can this incremental be done in a safe way ? (without for example, two processes in a race condition to get the next counter and increment it, which could eventually result in a duplicate Order Count).
And another note:
Can this be done Entity Framework wise? if not - a Sql Server solution will be respected.
First answer, the example in the question has changed after it was written.
You say that is it OK to have gaps in the Part IDs, because "some parts might be deleted along the way".
So, what's the difference between your example:
Car PartID
54654 1
54654 2
54654 3
78787 1
78787 2
99666 1
99666 2
99666 5
99666 7
And this variant:
Car PartID
54654 1
54654 2
54654 3
78787 4
78787 5
99666 6
99666 7
99666 8
99666 9
In the second variant each part has some ID that is unique for each car (it is also globally unique as well, but it doesn't matter). In the second variant PartID specifies the order in which parts were inserted into the table, same as in the first variant.
So, I'd use a simple IDENTITY column:
Parts
PartID int IDENTITY NOT NULL (PRIMARY KEY)
CarLicenseNum int NOT NULL (FOREIGN KEY)
PartName varchar(255)
Update for Supplier-Order example
The most important bit in the updated question is "regulatory reasons". It answers the question why would you want to do such unnatural thing. "Regulatory" and efficiency are often opposite.
Essentially, it means that you have to use serializable transaction isolation level when inserting a new row and calculating the next number in the sequence. It will hurt concurrency/throughput, but it will guarantee consistency and "be safe" in multi-user environment.
I don't know how to do it in Entity Framework, it should be possible. But, again, for "regulatory reasons" I'd put this logic in the stored procedure in the DB and make sure that ordinary users don't have write access to the Orders table directly, but have rights only to execute this dedicated stored procedure. You can replicate the logic of this stored procedure in the EF code, but the database itself will be open to changes done through other applications, which may not follow the regulatory requirements.
You can implement it using the separate table, which stores the latest sequence number for each supplier, or you can read the last maximum sequence number on the fly. If each supplier has only few orders, then this separate table with latest values of counters would be comparable to Orders table and you would not gain much. In any case, having a proper index is the key. Getting the latest counter value would be one seek in the index.
Here is an example of stored procedure without using an extra table.
Make sure that Orders table has unique index on (SupplierId, OrderCountForSupplier). In fact, you must have this index even if you are using an extra table to enforce the constraint.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[AddOrder]
#ParamSupplierID int,
#ParamProductSerial varchar(10),
#ParamQuantity int,
#NewOrderID int OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SET XACT_ABORT ON;
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
BEGIN TRY
DECLARE #VarMaxCounter int;
SELECT TOP(1) #VarMaxCounter = OrderCountForSupplier
FROM dbo.Orders
WHERE SupplierID = #ParamSupplierID
ORDER BY OrderCountForSupplier DESC;
SET #VarMaxCounter = ISNULL(#VarMaxCounter, 0) + 1;
INSERT INTO dbo.Orders
(SupplierID
,OrderCountForSupplier
,ProductSerial
,Quantity)
VALUES
(#ParamSupplierID
,#VarMaxCounter
,#ParamProductSerial
,#ParamQuantity);
SET #NewOrderID = SCOPE_IDENTITY();
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
-- TODO: handle the error
SET #NewOrderID = 0;
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
END CATCH;
END
GO
After investigating some possible approaches (see links at the bottom), I've came out with a very basic solution, with the help of #Vladimir Baranov.
I've ruled out using SqlServer triggers / Stored Procedures. They seemed hard to implement in conjunction with Entity Framework, and they seem to me like an Over-Kill in this scenario.
I've also ruled out the Optimistic Concurrency approach (using a concurrency token), because in this scenario, the counters cannot be updated simultaneously. They only get updated after a successful insertion to the orders table.
My orders table looks like that. I've added a unique constraint on the OrderId, SupplierId and OrderCountForSupplier trio, so insertion of the same order count for a supplier would fail.
I've indeed used a counters table, from which I can take the latest counter - for each of the suppliers.
Supplier Order Counters Table
| SupplierId | OrderCountForSupplier
------------------------
| 54654 | 3
| 78787 | 2
| 99666 | 4
These are the steps:
Get the current supplier orders counter.
Try insert a new order for the supplier, using the current counter + 1.
If the insertion goes ok => Increase the orders counter for this supplier, on the supplier counters table.
If insertion goes wrong, and we get an error stating the has been a violation of the constraint (same order count, which already exists):
Try 2 more times to get the current counter, and try inserting the order again.
The Code:
public class SupplierRepository
{
private MyContext _context;
private Supplier _supplier;
public SupplierRepository(int supplierId)
{
_context = new MyContext();
_supplier = context.Suppliers.Single(x => x.SupplierId == supplierId);
}
// Retrieve the latest counter for a supplier
public SupplierCounter GetCounter()
{
var counterEntity = _context.SupplierCounters.Single(x => x.SupplierId == _supplier.SupplierId);
return counterEntity;
}
// Adding a supplier
public void AddSupplier(Order order)
{
int retries = 3;
while (retries > 0)
{
SupplierCounter currentCounter = GetCounter();
try
{
// Set the current counter into the order object
_order.OrderCountForSupplier = currentCounter.OrderCountForSupplier;
_context.Add(order);
// Success! update the counter (+1) and then break out of the while loop.
currentCounter.OrderCountForSupplier += 1;
// I'M CALLING `SAVECHANGES` AFTER ADDING AN ORDER AND INCREASING THE COUNTER, SO THEY WOULD BE IN THE SAME TRANSACTION.
// THIS WOULD PREVENT A SCENARIO WHERE THE ORDER IS ADDED AND THE COUNTER IS NOT INCREMENTED.
_context.SaveChanges();
break;
}
catch (SqlException ex)
{
if (ex.Number == 2627) // Violating unique constraint
{
--retries;
}
}
}
}
}
Some useful links:
SQL Server Unique Composite Key of Two Field With Second Field Auto-Increment
Atomic Increment with Entity Framework
how to inc/dec multi user safe in entity framework 5
This is not a real world example. That's why you are struggling. For an example, A real world parts entity is lot more complicated than that. A real world part will have a ManufacturerId (BMW, Audi etc), PartNumber(B4-773284-YT), VehicleModelId (AUDI A4 etc), Description, ManufacturerYear so on and so forth. Usually when it comes to parts entities, we use a concatanated primary key on ManufacturerId and PartNumber.
Same with your car table. It's not a real world example too. Car entity should have a VIN number, which is unique. When you say each part is specific, you are not talking about Part entity. You are talking about PartInventory entity. PartInventory has a unique serial number (barcode) for each part. So every single part can be identified uniquely. When you attach a part to a vehicle, you are not just attaching a Part, you are actually attaching a PartInventory item, which is recognizable by a unique serial number.
Once the partInventory item is attached to a vehicle, it becomes a fitted part item of the vehicle. Which means the part gets transferred to VehicleParts table.
Unfortunately I see a lot of gaps in your vehicle industry domain knowledge. We develop systems to address real world problems. When you try to address hypothetical problems, you run in to this kind of issues. That leads to wasting lot of other peoples time who are trying to help you out.
First things first: it is not OK to change your question entirely! Delete this question and create a new one. Having said that ...
Answer of the current question:
Answers to hypothetical questions are just oppinion based and/or too broad (there is actually a flag for this - Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.)!
My answer to the current question is: I do not see any benefit (or advantage or use) of the OrderCountForSupplier in the database! Creating such counter in the database makes adding and maintenance (in a multi-threaded environment) very complicated and error-prone.
I think the problem can be solved more easily with the help of EF (move the creation of the counters in the code) and a different design of the database:
in order to allow concurrent adding of Orders, create two columns - a GUID as the Order-PrimaryKey and a CreationDate of type DateTime. Filling those two columns from multiple threads is not a problem
when retrieving all Orders for a specific SupplierId, sort the result list in ascending order by CreationDate
when iterating over the result list using (for example) a for-loop, then the counter is the desired sequential counter
as an alternative to the EF solution, the creation of the sequential counter can stay in SQL - create a view or stored procedure for the Order items and use ROW_NUMBER to create the artificial sequential count, after grouping the items over SupplierId and sorting on CreationDate
Reading the database from multiple threads (and creating the counter in every thread) is again not a problem any more.
Answer of the first question:
You are almost there. You need to normalize your data model a little bit more. This is a common scenario in which you want to minimize redundancy of the data and at the same time still maintain a meaningful relation (without the use of triggers).
One possible solution would be to create a Car_has_Part-Table in order to represent the relation between a Car and a Part entity:
| Car_has_Part |
----------------
| PartId |
| CarId |
The primary key of the Car_has_Part table is a composite primary key consisting of CarId + PartId which is unique and at the same time you avoid data duplication.
In your example in the Parts table the Doors part is repeated for every Car. Using this intermediate table the data is not duplicated and you have a proper relation.
Your new data model could look like this:
| Car | | Car_has_Part | | Part |
------- ---------------- ----------
|CarId | | PartId | | PartId |
|Model | | | | Descr |
| etc. | | CarId | | etc. |
This model allow resp. covers the specified requirements:
I need to be able to create a counter, like an auto incremented
number, to count the parts for each car. Car 1, could have parts 1, 2,
3... and Car 2 would also have parts 1, 2, 5, 7... (some parts might be deleted along the way).
Select all PartId's from the Car_has_Part table over CarId.
Each part HAS to be counted separately for its related car. That's the
base requirement.
Same as above (without data duplication like in your example). Adding resp. removing a relation or modifying a part name has also become easier - you need to update only one row in the Parts table and the change is reflected for every car.
About the triggers question - you can only create a trigger with EF (using code first approach). Regarding execution - triggers are always executed in the database and EF can't control trigger execution (you can certainly enable/disable trigger using raw SQL queries, but if I understand your question correctly this is not what you want).
Related
I need to do a BULK INSERT of several hundred-thousand records across 3 tables. A simple breakdown of the tables would be:
TableA
--------
TableAID (PK)
TableBID (FK)
TableCID (FK)
Other Columns
TableB
--------
TableBID (PK)
Other Columns
TableC
--------
TableCID (PK)
Other Columns
The problem with a bulk insert, of course, is that it only works with one table so FK's become a problem.
I've been looking around for ways to work around this, and from what I've gleaned from various sources, using a SEQUENCE column might be the best bet. I just want to make sure I have correctly cobbled together the logic from the various threads and posts I've read on this. Let me know if I have the right idea.
First, would modify the tables to look like this:
TableA
--------
TableAID (PK)
TableBSequence
TableCSequence
Other Columns
TableB
--------
TableBID (PK)
TableBSequence
Other Columns
TableC
--------
TableCID (PK)
TableCSequence
Other Columns
Then, from within the application code, I would make five calls to the database with the following logic:
Request X Sequence numbers from TableC, where X is the known number of records to be inserted into TableC. (1st DB call.)
Request Y Sequence numbers from TableB, where Y is the known number of records to be inserted into TableB (2nd DB call.)
Modify the existing objects for A, B and C (which are models generated to mirror the tables) with the now known Sequence numbers.
Bulk insert to TableA. (3rd DB call)
Bulk insert to TableB. (4th DB call)
Bulk insert to TableC. (5th DB call)
And then, of course, we would always join on the Sequence.
I have three questions:
Do I have the basic logic correct?
In Tables B and C, would I remove the clustered index from the PK and put in on the Sequence instead?
Once the Sequence numbers are requested from Tables B and C, are they then somehow locked between the request and the bulk insert? I just need to make sure that between the request and the insert, some other process doesn't request and use the same numbers.
Thanks!
EDIT:
After typing this up and posting it, I've been reading deeper into the SEQUENCE document. I think I misunderstood it at first. SEQUENCE is not a column type. For the actual column in the table, I would just use an INT (or maybe a BIGINT) depending on the number of records I expect to have). The actual SEQUENCE object is an entirely separate entity whose job is to generate numeric values on request and keep track of which ones have already been generated. So, if I understand correctly, I would generate two SEQUENCE objects, one to be used in conjunction with Table B and one with Table C.
So that answers my third question.
Do I have the basic logic correct?
Yes. The other common approach here is to bulk load your data into a staging table, and do something similar on the server-side.
From the client you can request ranges of sequence values using the sp_sequence_get_range stored procedure.
In Tables B and C, would I remove the clustered index from the PK
No, as you later noted the sequence just supplies the PK values for you.
Sorry, read your question wrong at first. I see now that you are trying to generate your own PK's rather then allow MS SQL to generate them for you. Scratch my above comment.
As David Browne mentioned, you might want to use a staging table to avoid the strain you'll put on your app's heap. Use tempdb and do the modifications directly on the table using a single transaction for each table. Then, copy the staging tables over to their target or use a MERGE if appending. If you are enforcing FK's, you can temporarily remove those constraints if you choose to insert in reverse order (C=>B=>A). You also may want to consider temporarily removing indexes if experiencing performance issues during the insert. Last, consider using SSIS instead of a custom app.
I am working on hold and commit functionality to achieve hotel booking in the inventory. I have a room table in SQL Server where I store the number of available rooms for individual room type, so whenever the user books the room I need to hold the specific number of rooms and once the payment is done, I need to commit those rooms what I hold. I am bit confused about how to achieve this? For backend I am using .NET Core and database is SQL Server ?
I created a holdandcommit table as follows:
HoldAndCommit Table
RoomId HoldCount CommitCount HoldTime CommitTime
1 2 0 11:00PM 11:00PM
Step 1:
Room Table :
RoomId PropertyId AvailableRooms
1 1 10
Step 2:
HoldAndCommit Table
RoomId HoldCount CommitCount HoldTime CommitTime
1 2 0 11:00PM 11:00PM
Room Table
RoomId PropertyId AvailableRooms
1 1 8
Step 3:
HoldAndCommit Table
RoomId HoldCount CommitCount HoldTime CommitTime
1 0 2 11:00PM 11:03PM
Room Table
RoomId PropertyId AvailableRooms
1 1 8
Step 4:
HoldAndCommit Table
RoomId HoldCount CommitCount HoldTime CommitTime
1 2 0 11:00PM 11:00PM
Room Table
RoomId PropertyId AvailableRooms
1 1 10
1) Initially, the available rooms will be 10 for room number 1
2) Let say, the user wants to book 2 rooms, then I will create an entry in the holdandcommit table with details such as roomid, number of rooms to hold in the holdcount column and hold time as the system time. also, the availablerooms value in the room table will be deducted so that it will become 8 now
3) when the user completes successful payment, I will mark the commit count as 2 and make the hold count as 0.
4) In case of the failure in the payment then holdcount will be 2 and commit count will be 0 and the available rooms should be reverted back to 10. I was thinking to run the background task in the sql server agent, but I am afraid about the performance.
I am looking at your schema designs and it appears like you had a tenancy to engineer it with human readable tables rather than for the process / booking operations.
I'm going to propose for a simple approach and reduce the schema down to an "expiring token repository" -- not exactly sure if there is a better way to describe it, but more on that later...
Using a Guid type
Firstly, I would highly suggest to include a Guid type as a primary key as this will allow for an easy WebAPI transition for the future (which will allow for greater compatibility with online booking services).
Using a Guid as a primary key will also provide a layer of overall security (obfuscation) as it will not be a running index value.
For example instead of RoomId(int), we will do RoomId(guid). So now instead of RoomId=1 we will have something like RoomId=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 (note this is just an example Guid value, a real one will be randomized values.
Simple expiring token repository
Sorry to use complicated words to describe this solution. If I try and break it down for you, it is basically a very simple table that will keep track of what your inventory (rooms) have "holds".
Holds Table
Id(Guid) RoomId(Guid)*** Expiration(DateTime)
a8...e7ef 00...0001 2018-12-31 12:59 // expired
ff...e96a 00...0001 2019-01-08 12:00 // not expired
b0...ff84 00...0001 2019-01-08 12:01 // not expired
***Note that I would change the RoomId to something generic like ProductId or AssetId or ItemId. As this will allow you to be able to use this repository to put holds on anything you want that has a Guid (such as a promotion deal for long stay rooms, or valentines day room, etc).
Putting it together
The Holds table is basically a long ledger or journal entry of every single hold ever taken, no items need to get deleted (or even modified) and can remain on record for any audits or reports you wish to generate about lost opportunities, etc.
How it works...
Customer makes a hold on a room.
The system creates a record in the Holds table, notes the expiration time.
Customer continues on to make a reservation.
The system creates a record in the Reservations table.
When you are searching for room availability you run a simple query
Check to see how many records RoomId has in the Holds table that are not yet expired.
Then add that amount to the inventory balance from the Reservations table.
I have a live web application(.NET), in which I have a facility for making transactions. When more no. of users make any transactions at the same time, duplicate/same transaction ID gets generated for all the users who're all making transactions. Is there any way to avoid creating same ID ? I tried the following solutions but nothing helps.
1.Mutex
2.Table lock(SQL)
3.Generating Transaction ID at the time of inserting into the table.
Use a database to generate the ID. Some possible examples:
SQL Server has an auto increment feature. Oracle has a sequence feature
This will ensure your ID to be unique.
You mention SQL, so you have a database accessible.
Option 1
SQL Server already has an auto-increment feature that is both guaranteed to generate a unique ID and is efficient.
If you want to "add letters to that ID", the simplest solution is to add a separate varchar field that contains those letters, and then format them for display as a single number in your application (either by using a SQL query to do so or string.Format.
ID | IDText Application Display
------------------ -----------------------
1 | MyLabel 1-MyLabel
2 | MyLabel 2-MyLabel
3 | FooBar 3-FooBar
4 | SomeText 4-SomeText
So, in the above, ID would be an auto-increment int field and IDText would be a varchar (or char if you want a fixed length).
As you can see, even if the same string such as "MyLabel" were added at the same time, you would get a different ID to append to it so you in effect have a unique ID.
Option 2
Use a stored procedure to contain the following logic in a single transaction with BEGIN TRANSACTION/END TRANSACTION:
Query for the highest ID
Add 1 to that ID
Create a new record with the new ID
Return that ID
The transaction will guarantee that the number cannot be duplicated. This is less efficient for creating IDs, but more efficient at looking them up than the 2-column approach.
Is there any way to alter the underlying database using EF using Code First approach?
I have 2 tables which have a static model:
Users and Info1.
I also have another table which Ill call info2.
I would like to be able to add and remove columns from Info2 from the admin section of my website.
My goal is to have a website which can dynamically be altered as you go, adding and removing fields as the user likes, without the user having to know anything about coding.
I've considered using a separate database outside of the one specified in the model of my MVC3 project and do straight SQL requests to that instead.
This could also be accomplished by having a table with the dynamically created fields, and another with the data, but this gets messy fast.
Has anyone done anything like this? Is it a bad idea?
I'd recommend not trying to expand the table horizontally, that's an operation that you should make a conscious decision to have.
Instead, I'd recommend that you store the values as name/value pairs. You can have tables that have specific types (let's say you needed an integer value paired with a key), and then you would select those into a dictionary for the user.
You'd also have a table which has the keys, if you are concerned about replicating key values.
For example, you'd have a UserDefinedKey table
UserDefinedKeyId (int, PK) Key (varchar(?))
-------------------------- ----------------
1 'My Website'
2 'My favorite color'
Then you would have a UserDefinedString table (for string values)
UserDefinedStringId UserId UserDefinedKeyId Value
(int, PK) (int, FK) (int, FK) (varchar(max))
------------------- --------- ---------------- --------------
1 1 1 'http://stackoverflow.com'
2 1 2 'Blue'
3 2 2 'Red'
You'd probably want to place a unique index on the UserId and UserDefinedKeyId fields to prevent people from entering multiple values for the same key (if you want that, have a separate table without the unique constraint).
Then, when you want to add a value for users, you add it to the UserDefinedKey table, and then drive your logic off that table and the other tables which hold the values.
Another benefit of storing the values vertically is that you aren't wasting space for columns with values that aren't being used by all users.
For example, assuming you take the approach of modifying the table, for the attributes above, you would get:
UserId WebSite Color
------ ------- -----
1 http://stackoverflow.com Blue
2 (null) Red
Now let's say a third user comes along, and adds a Favorite Sports Team value, and they are the only one who uses it, the table then looks like:
UserId WebSite Color FavoriteSportsTeam
------ ------- ----- ------------------
1 http://stackoverflow.com Blue (null)
2 (null) Red (null)
3 (null) (null) Yankees
As the number of users and attributes grows, the amount of sparse data that you have will increase dramatically.
Now, assuming you are using SQL Server 2008, you could use sparse columns, if you don't, your table is going to get huge but not have much data.
Also, using sparse columns doesn't take away from the fact that it's pretty dirty to use data definition language (DDL) to change the schema on the fly.
Additionally, Entity Framework isn't going to be able to adapt it's object model to account for the new attributes; every time you have an attribute added, you will have to go and add the attribute to your object model, recompile, and redeploy.
With a vertical approach, it takes more work, granted, but it will be infinitely flexible, as well as utilize your database space more efficiently.
I don't know if you got what I mean, but I'll try to explain it with an example.
Users Table
UsedId UserName
-------- ----------
1 Mike
2 Raul
HasPrivileges Table
UsedId PrivilegeId
-------- --------------
1 1
1 2
1 3
2 2
2 3
Privileges Table
PrivilegeId Privilege
------------- ------------
1 Create
2 Edit
3 Delete
now this is two tables users and privileges that has a many-to-many relation between them, so when I select all the users associated with the privileges they have, I get the in this examples 3 records or rows in result for Mike each one contains a privilege he has.
Now I need in my application to display a list of all the users with their privileges but INDEED i don't want my users to see a user three times to show all of his privileges or anything else instead I want it to display
User Id : 1
Name : Mike
Privileges : Create, Edit, Delete
or something close to this! ANY IDEAS GUYS !??
Ikashef, as Tomalak said, suppressing the repeating name from each of the name/permissions rows is a "presentation-layer" issue, i.e. how you display data to your users.
What you want to do is look at ADO.NET DataTable to get these rows back:
Joe 1
Joe 7
Joe 8
Tom 3
Tom 7
Tom 8
The DataTable has a Rows property, which contains a collection of rows. You can iterate over (i.e. visit in turn) each DataRow in the Rows collection. So read up on ADO.NET DataTable object and on collections classes and on the "for each" syntax.
Ok there are 3 points I can identify with this current problem (I've got a similar thing in my own project).
Bitwise
You can virtually eliminate one of your tables by using a bitfield as opposed to a join table. For example, rather than storing the HasPrivilages along with a privileges table.... You can do this:
UsedId PrivilegeId
-------- --------------
1 1
1 2
1 3
2 2
2 3
Could equate to:
UsedId PrivilegeId
-------- --------------
1 7 (equivalent of Create, Edit and Delete)
2 6 (equivalent of Create and Delete)
This is because Create = 1, Edit = 2 and Delete = 4. Combined, they form a single integer number. This can be differentiated using Bitwise operations, like & and | to produce combinations of permissions.
You'd declare your set of permissions, with the Flags attribute like
[Flags()]
public enum Permissions {
Create = 1,
Edit = 2,
Delete = 4
}
When you read the value back, the enum will calculate the actual permissions for you, and you can work it out in your application by doing an operation such as:
bool canEdit = ((myUser.Permissions & Permissions.Edit) == Permissions.Edit);
If you have the appropriate Permissions enum, doing a .ToString() on that given instance will actually give you the permissions data you require. It is however preferable to give the enum an custom attribute so you can give each value a better name, or even make it language independent from a resource.
Formatting for presentation
You can of course stick with what you've got, and use the example Tim has given. Iterate over the rows and essentially precalculate the text.
Do it in SQL
Sometimes it's just easier to get SQL to do the work. I've done this a lot. If you're just getting DataTables back as opposed to reading them manually or using LINQ, this is a quick fix.
If you're using SQL Server 2005 or above, you can use code similar to:
SELECT u.UserId,
u.UserName AS [Name],
(
SELECT DISTINCT Privilege + ', '
FROM Privileges p2
INNER JOIN HasPrivileges j ON j.PrivilegeId = p2.PrivilegeId
WHERE j.UserId = u.UserId
FOR XML PATH ('')
) AS [Privileges]
FROM Users u
INNER JOIN HasPrivileges h ON h.UserId = u.UserId
GROUP BY u.UserId, UserName
This outputs:
UserId Name Privileges
------- ----- -----------
1 Mike Create, Delete, Edit,
2 Paul Delete, Edit,
This still isn't perfect. You'd have to load this into a temp table and strip the final "," char off the end of each Privileges column, or do it within your C# code.
Anyway just thought I'd offer some alternatives, Tom.
You have ASP.NET and C# in your tags. Considering that what you intend to do is a presentational issue, do it in the presentation layer (i.e. with C#) and not in the data layer (i.e. with SQL). That's a lot easier, too.
For example, like shown here: Use LINQ to concatenate multiple rows into single row (CSV property)