Develop Reference

ASP.NET Sorting Multiple SQL Database Tables By Date Range

This past week I was tasked with moving a PHP based database to a new SQL database. There are a handful of requirements, but one of those was using ASP.Net MVC to connect to the SQL database...and I have never used ASP.Net or MVC.
I have successfully moved the database to SQL and have the foundation of the ASP site set up (after spending many hours pouring through tutorials). The issue I am having now is that one of the pages is meant to display a handful of fields (User_Name, Work_Date, Work_Description, Work_Location, etc) but the only way of grabbing all of those fields is by combining two of the tables. Furthermore, I am required to allow the user to search the combined table for any matching rows between a user inputted date range.
I have tried having a basic table set up that displays the correct fields and have implemented a search bar...but that only allows me to search by a single date, not a range. I have also tried to use GridView with its Query Builder feature to grab the data fields I needed (which worked really well), but I can't figure out how to attach textboxes/buttons to the newly made GridView. Using a single table with GridView works perfectly and using textboxes/buttons is very intuitive. I just can't seem to make the same connection with a joined view.
So I suppose my question is this: what is the best way for me to combine these two tables while also still having the ability to perform searches on the displayed data? If I could build this database from scratch I would have just made a table with the relevant data attached to it, but because this is derived from a previously made database it has 12+ years of information that I need to dump into it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am kind of dead in the water here. My inexperience with these systems is getting the better of me. I could post the code that I have, but I am mainly interested in my options and then I can do the research on my own.
Thanks!

It's difficult to offer definitive answers to your questions due to the need for guesswork.
But here are some hints.
You can say WHERE datestamp >= '2017-01-01' AND datestamp < '2018-01-01' to filter all the rows in calendar year 2017. Many variations on this sort of date range filter are available.
Your first table probably has some kind of ID number on each row. Let's call it first.first_id. Your second table probably has its own id, let's call it second.second_id. And, it probably has another id that identifies a row in your first table, let's call it second.first_id. That second.first_id is called a foreign key in the second table to the first table. There can be any number of rows in your second table corresponding to your first table via this foreign key.
If this is the case you can do something like this:
SELECT first.datestamp, first.val1, first.val2, second.val1, second.val2
FROM first
JOIN second ON first.first_id = second.first_id
WHERE first.datestamp >= '2018-06-01' AND first.datestamp < '2018-07-01'
AND (first.val1 = 'some search term' OR second.val1 = 'some search term')
ORDER BY first.datestamp
This makes a virtual table by joining together your two physical tables (FROM...JOIN...).
Then it filters the rows you want from that virtual table (FROM ...).
Then it puts them in the order you want (ORDER BY...).
Finally, it chooses the columns from the virtual table you want in your result set (SELECT ...).
SQL database servers (MySQL, SQL Server, postgreSQL, Oracle and the rest) are very smart about doing this sort of thing efficiently.

How can I save a 3d array in a SQL table

I'm writing code in C#.
It has two type of user: distributors and clients.
Clients can see all products of all distributors and can select them with mentioning the number of each product they need.So they make a list of orders.
Distributors can see lists of orders received from all clients to them. The table should contains "distributor id" and "client id" and "list of ordered products" with their cost and numbers which have ordered.
But I have no idea about saving this data to a single table.i want that each row mentions to a single list of orders from a special client to a special distributor.
Can I have a 3D table or an array or there is a better and more efficient way?

Is it possible to do what you want? Yes.
Should you? No.
I mean, let's say you set up your table. A column for the distributor, a column for the client, and a column for your list of orders (let's use XML for the example) :
DistID ClientID Orders
1 1 <item>A</item><item>B</item><item>C</item>
2 1 <item>D</item><item>C</item>
2 2 <item>E</item><item>A</item><item>F</item><item>G</item>
... so what problems will you run into? First, imagine trying to add or remove an order. You'd have to read the full Orders list, change it, and then write it all back to SQL. That's a lot of overhead, especially if your 'list' has a lot of items or if you're doing a lot of order adds/removes.
Worse, what happens when you need to find anyone that's ordered 'B'? You're going to have to do a full text scan on that column - no index seeks, no optimizations, nothing - just to find the matching items.
Here's my suggestion - take a look at "SQL Normalization" - basically, the guidelines on how to organize SQL data efficiently and effectively. Here are some good starter places:
http://www.studytonight.com/dbms/database-normalization.php
https://www.essentialsql.com/get-ready-to-learn-sql-database-normalization-explained-in-simple-english/
https://www.guru99.com/database-normalization.html

Based on the information you give, it seems you want a data model like this:
Distributor
Id
Name
Client
Id
Name
Product
Id
DistributorId (foreign key)
Order
Id
ProductId (foreign key)
ClientId (foreign key)
Number
That way you can store product orders from clients, and make sure distributors see order of their own products by selecting all orders having productId's that are linked to the selected distributor.

How can I properly present and write a checkboxlist to a db? (Theory/Logic help)

Please note that the database design I have now is fully in sandbox mode. Nothing is finalized. Everything (again this is in sandbox mode) is in one single table. Also, I'm in now way looking for coding help. I'm looking for the right theoretical/logical approach to this puzzle so I can go in and play with the coding myself. I learn better that way. If I need coding help, I'll come back here for further assistance.
I'm in the process of creating the first of a few CheckBoxList for a manually created form submittal. I've been looking over multiple ways to not only create said CheckBoxList but to enter it into the database. However, the challenge I'm facing (mainly because I haven't encountered this scenario before and I'd like to learn this) is that I not only need to worry about entering the items correctly in the database but I will eventually need to produce a report or make a printable form from these entries.
Let's say I have an order form for a specific type of Barbeque grill and I will need to send this form out to distriution centers across the nation. The distribution centers will need to pull said barbecues if they are highlighted on the form.
Here's what the CheckBoxList for the distibution centers will look like:
All
Dallas
Miami
Los Angeles
Seattle
New York
Chicago
Phoenix
Montreal
If the specific city (or all the cities) are checked, then the distribution center will pull the barbecue grill for shipment.
The added part is that I want to:
be able to create a grid view from this database for reporting to note which distribution center got orders for barbecues and
be able to create reports to tell what distribution center sent out barbecue orders in a given month (among other reporting).
Here's what I'm playing around with right now.
In my aspx page I have a checkboxlist programmed with all the distribution centers entered as a listitem as well as an option for 'ALL' (of the distribution centers).
I also created a dedicated column in this table that holds all the information in the listitem and programmed a sqldataconnection to this table to play with the programmability of leveraging the database for this purpose.
When it comes to writing the selections to the database, I originally created a column for each destination city including the 'All' option. I was toying around with just putting the selections into one single column but with some of the information I've been reading today about Database Normalization, the former options seems to be a better one than the latter. Is this correct practice for situations such as this especially if I need to think about reporting? Do I put the CheckBoxList data in one cell in a specific column? Do I create seprate columns for each distribution center? Am I even on the right track here?

Depending on the amount of cities that you want to store, I've used bitwise operators to store small amounts of data. Effectively, it would store it in the table like this:
CityID Location
2 Dallas
4 Miami
8 New York
16 Chicago
32 Montreal
and keep going in base 2 for additional cities.
When your user selects multiple cities for the order, the value that gets inserted into the database for cities is a bitwise OR calculation. So if they select Dallas, New York, and Chicago, you would be doing the following:
2 OR 8 OR 16
Which would equal 26
Now, you can use bitwise AND on the resulting value. So if checking for Miami the following is the evaluation:
26 AND 4 = 0
which indicates that Miami was not selected. Any value that was selected in the evaluation, it would return its ID like this:
26 AND 8 = 8
Again, I've only used this for small subsets of data, and to make the data storage as compact as possible. Computationally, it may be a trifle more expensive that some other methods, but I'm not 100% certain.

Note: This might not be the best approaches but I have seen them used.
1) Having one column of comma-delimited string
This should work well if the options don't have IDs in the database (having a separate referenced table)
You will need to loop through the checkbox list, obtained the selected options and concatenate them with String.Join()
You will need to split the string upon receiving it from the db and use it to check the checkboxes if there text is found in the resulting array
Problem: You might need a split function in the DB that converts the comma-separated string into rows. There split function implementation on the web/stackoverflow
2) You can have a separate table for the locations e.g. xxxxtable_location where the FK to the main table is referenced. This will be a one-many table
ParentID, Location
1 Dallas
2 Miami
2 New York
2 Chicago
3 Miami

Retrieve random DB record

What is the best way to retrieve a "X" number of random records using Entity Framework (EF5 if it's relevant). The value of "X" will be set based on where this will be used.
Is there a method for doing this built into EF or is best to pull down a result set and then use a C# random number function to pull the records. Or is there a method that I'm not thinking of?
On the off chance that it's relevant I have a table that stores images that I use for different usages (there is a FK to an image type table). The images that I use in my carousel on the homepage is what I'm wanting to add some variety to...consequently how "random" it is doesn't matter to me much. I'm just trying to get away from the same six or so pictures always being displayed. (Also, I'm not really interested in debating/discussing storing images in a table vs local storage.)
The solution needs to be one using EF via a LINQ statement. If this isn't directly possibly I may end up doing something SIMILAR to what #cmd has recommended in the comments. This would most likely be a matter of retrieving a record count...testing the PK to make sure the resulting object wasn't null and building a LIST of the X number of object's PKs to pass to front end. The carousel lazy loads the images so I don't actually need the image when I'm building the list that will be used by the carousel.

Can you just add an ORDER BY RAND() clause to your query?
See this related question: MySQL: Alternatives to ORDER BY RAND()

How to provide Unique ID in Offline mode?

In a client-server accounting application in invoice form when a user saves an invoce it gets An invoice number like 90134 from server and saves the invoice with that number The invoice number is needed for the customer.
So in Offline mode (like when the network dropped) how provide a unique id?
Is it good to use String Id like this pattern: client + incremental number?
I don't want to use GUIDs.

If you know in advance how many invoice numbers you will generate per client during an offline period, would you be able to pre-allocate invoice numbers? e.g. if each client is likely only to generate 4 invoices per offline period, you could allocate a block of 4 numbers to each client. This may involve an extra column in your DB to store a value indicating whether the number is an invoice already created, or a preallocation of a number. Depending on the structure and constraints within your DB, you may also need to store some dummy data to enforce referential integrity.
The downsides would be that your block of numbers may not get used sequentially, or indeed at all, so your invoice numbers would not be in chronological order. Also, you would run into problems if the pool of available numbers is used up.

You can use Guid:
var myUniqueID = Guid.NewID();
In SQL server is corresponding type uniqueidentifier.
In general the Guid is 128-bit number.
More about Guid you can read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_unique_identifier
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.guid.aspx

I suppose the invoice number (integer) is incremental: in this case, since you have no way of knowing the last invoice number, you could save the invoice in a local db/cache/xml without the invoice Number and wait for the network connection to insert the new records in the DB (the invoice number would be generated then)

You could start your numbers for each client at a different range... e.g.:
client 1: 1,000,000
client 2: 2,000,000
client 3: 3,000,000
Update them every now and then when there is a connection to avoid overlaps.
It's not 100% bulletproof, but at least it's better than nothing.
My favorite would still be a GUID for this, since they're always unique.

There is a workaround, but it is merely a "dirty hack", you should seriously reconsider accepting new data entries while offline, especially when dealing with unique IDs to be inserted in many tables.
Say you have an "orders" table and another "orderDetails" table in your local dataset:
1- add a tmpID of type integer in your "orders" table to temporarily identify each unique order.
2- use the tmpID of your newly created order in the rest of the process (say for adding products to the current order in the orderDetails table)
--> once you are connected to the server, in a single transaction do the following
1- insert the first order in the "orders" table
2- get its uniqueID generated on your SQL server
3- search for each line in "orderDetails" that have a tmpID of currentOrder.tmpID and insert them in the "orderDetails" table on your server
4- commit the transaction and continue to the following row.
Keep in mind that this is very bad coding and that it can get real dirty and hard to maintain.

it looks like impossible to create unique numbers with two different systems both offline when it must be chronological and without missing numbers.
imho there is no way if the last number (on the server) was 10, to know if i should return 11 or 12; i would have to know if 11 was already used by another person.
I can only imagine to use a temporary number and later on renumber those numbers, but if the invoices are printed and the number can not be changed, i don't know how you could accomplish such a solution.