Curious as to what you all think is the best method for something.  I have a 
table that contains a list of polls. I have a user table that contains a list 
of possible persons who may complete the poll (it requires log-in access). I 
want to present a poll only one time so users can't complete a poll more than 
once, so I need to maintain a list of users who have completed a poll. 

I see two ways I can do this:

1.  I can create a cross reference table that keeps users ID and Poll IDs (of 
users/polls completed), then use an SQL NOT IN to select polls for users who 
are NOT IN the completed poll table.

2. I can add a field in the POLLs record and put a delimited list of User IDs 
who've complete the poll, then not select any polls where the COMPLETED field 
contains the user ID of a given user.

There are about 1,500  users. There will probably be not more than 10 polls 
going on at any one time. Poll history will be maintained for about 60 days. 
Thus, there may be thousands of COMPLETED records.

Given that, is one of these methods better than the other, and if so, why? 

Should I use a delimited list in the POLL record, or should I use a 
cross-reference table with a join and NOT IN select... or should I do something 
different.

Thanks


Robert B. Harrison
Director of Interactive Services
Austin & Williams
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Hauppauge NY 11788
P : 631.231.6600 Ext. 119 
F : 631.434.7022
http://www.austin-williams.com 

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