Home/ Questions/Q 6711545
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-26T08:09:11+00:00

For a school project, I’m making a webapp that presents a dichotomous key .

  • 0

For a school project, I’m making a webapp that presents a dichotomous key.

First, it shows a list of possible items. The user picks one in their head. The app then presents the user with a question and buttons for Yes or No. A new question is asked based on the response to the previous one. This continues until only one item fits the user’s responses.

My question is how to store the data. My initial idea was a nested array. Here’s an example using fruits:

Options: Apple, Orange, Banana, Pear

0 - "Is it shaped like a sphere?"           Initial question
1 -                                         Yes response
    0 - "Do you eat the peel/skin?"         Subsequent question
    1 - "Apple"                             Answer based on Yes response
    2 - "Orange"                            Answer based on No response
2 -                                         No response to initial
    0 - "Is it yellow                       Subsequent question
    1 - "Banana"                            Answer based on Yes response
    2 - "Pear"                              Answer based on No response

But, this way seems like it could get pretty unwieldy with a lot of data. Is there a better way to structure this?

This has to be completely JS/HTML; I don’t want to use a database or anything like that.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’d suggest using a table like this (technically, it can be an array of objects)

                                    Apple Orange Banana Pear
Is it shaped like a sphere?     +     +      -      -
Do you eat the peel/skin?       +     -      -      +
Is it yellow?                   -     -      +      -

    It is more flexible compared to nested objects or graphs because you can determine questions and their order dynamically, depending on what items are selected.

    • 0