Question

I’m using ASP.NET C# to output the results from a SQL Server database query and trying to get the results to display only one record per court but that also displays multiple contact details per court.

The tables concerned are (PK in bold, FK in Italics):

Court (Court_ID, Court_Name, Note, Town, Postcode)

Contacts (Contact_ID, Contacts_Name, Contacts_no, *Court_ID*, *Court_Contact_Type_ID*)

Contact_Type (Court_Contact_Type_ID, Court_Contact_Type_Desc)

Currently my issue is that I get multiple repetitions of each court detail for as many contacts as each court has. I know why it’s doing it, but I don’t know the method for how to make it work the way I want.

I’m not sure if the solution lies within the SQL query itself (maybe resolved by nesting…?) or with the C# code because I’m using ‘HasRows’. I’ve included both code snippets below.

string myQuery = "SELECT Court_Name, Town, Postcode, Note, Contacts_Name, Contacts_no, Court_Contact_Type_Desc " +
                 "FROM Court C, Contacts CON, Contact_type CONT " +
                 "WHERE C.Court_ID = CON.Court_ID AND CON.Court_Contact_Type_ID = CONT.Court_Contact_Type_ID AND C.Court_ID = '3' ";


SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connStr);
SqlCommand myCommand = new SqlCommand(myQuery, connection);
SqlDataReader myDataReader;
connection.Open();

myDataReader = myCommand.ExecuteReader();

if (myDataReader.HasRows)
{

    while (myDataReader.Read())
    {

        string court_name = myDataReader["Court_Name"].ToString();
        string court_town = myDataReader["Town"].ToString();
        string court_pcode = myDataReader["Postcode"].ToString();
        string court_note = myDataReader["Note"].ToString();
        string court_contact_name = myDataReader["Contacts_Name"].ToString();
        string court_contact_desc = myDataReader["Court_Contact_Type_Desc"].ToString();
        string court_contacts_no = myDataReader["Contacts_no"].ToString();

        Response.Write("<strong>" + court_name + "</strong><br>" + court_town + "<br>" + court_pcode + "<p>" + court_note + "</p>" + "<p>" + court_contact_name + " - " + court_contact_desc + " : " + court_contacts_no + "</p>");

    }

}

The eventual output should look something like this:

Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court
Abergavenny
NP7 5DL

This court is open for hearings only. Additional Court Notes….

Contacts
Contact Name 1 – Acting Court Manager: 01633 64xxxx
Contact Name 2 – Acting Office Manager: 01633 64xxxx
Contact Name 3 – Acting List Officer: 01633 64xxxx
Contact Name 4 – Justices’ Clerk: 01633 64xxxx

As ever any help gratefully received!

Cheers

Answer 1

You can solve the problem like this:

• Add court_id to the select list
• Add ordering criteria that put rows that belong to the same court next to each other
• When iterating through the data coming back, see if you have seen the court id before
• If this is the first time that you see the court id, show both the court and the contact details
• If you have seen this court id before, show only the contact information

Here is an example of how you can do it:

string myQuery = "SELECT C.Court_ID, Court_Name, Town, Postcode, Note, Contacts_Name, Contacts_no, Court_Contact_Type_Desc " +
             "FROM Court C "+
             "JOIN Contacts CON ON C.Court_ID = CON.Court_ID "+
             "JOIN Contact_type CONT ON CON.Court_Contact_Type_ID = CONT.Court_Contact_Type_ID " +
             "WHERE C.Court_ID = '3' "+ // I assume the search criteria will be different
             "ORDER BY C.Court_ID"; // Very important: records for the same court must be together

...
string last_id = string.Empty;
while (myDataReader.Read())
{
    string court_id = myDataReader["Court_ID"].ToString();
    string court_name = myDataReader["Court_Name"].ToString();
    string court_town = myDataReader["Town"].ToString();
    string court_pcode = myDataReader["Postcode"].ToString();
    string court_note = myDataReader["Note"].ToString();
    string court_contact_name = myDataReader["Contacts_Name"].ToString();
    string court_contact_desc = myDataReader["Court_Contact_Type_Desc"].ToString();
    string court_contacts_no = myDataReader["Contacts_no"].ToString();
    if (last_id != court_id) {
        // Write court AND contact
        Response.Write("<strong>" + court_name + "</strong><br>" + court_town + "<br>" + court_pcode + "<p>" + court_note + "</p>" + "<p>" + court_contact_name + " - " + court_contact_desc + " : " + court_contacts_no + "</p>");
    } else {
        // Write only contact
        Response.Write("<p>" + court_contact_name + " - " + court_contact_desc + " : " + court_contacts_no + "</p>");
    }
    last_id = court_id;
}