Question

Say I have a table like this:

Table name: Test

col1 | col2 | col3 | col4
--------------------------
a    | 0    | 0    | 1

Is it possible to retrieve the row, and just the column that is not zero, without having to list each column separately?

Is there a simple way to just select the row that has a value of 1? only 1 column will have a integer value of 1 on each row.

I am trying to get the column name of this one row that is not zero. The columns in this table will grow, so I dont want to have to list each column name in my sql statement. Im using SQLite.

Answer 1

relational databases are intended to do operations in rows, not in columns.. so columns operations are very inefficient. Maybe you are using wrong approach to your problem. consider this: suppose that you found a way to solve your situation, what will happen if more than one “1” is present? what if no “1” is present?

then i suppose you want also the column name that has “1” value, so where do you manage to store it in result?

I Strongly suggest you to store that info in another table, so you can quickly achieve what you want.