Question

I have an application where a user creates quiz questions. They can choose from various answer types: yes/no boolean, true/false boolean, integer, string, etc.

a) How should I store those answers? In one column of type string? Or is there a better way?

b) How would I handle the validations when a user is answering the questions? Different answer types will require different validations.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would suggest two columns, both Strings. Make the first answer, and the other answer_type.

You could then create a custom validation:

class MyValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
  def validate(record)
    if record.answer_type == 'String'
      # preform String validations on record.answer
    else if record.answer_type == 'Integer'
      # preform Integer validations on record.answer
    else if record.answer_type == 'Boolean'
      # preform Boolean validations on record.answer
  end
end