From: chris smith <smith@...>
Date: 2005-11-26T04:53:44+09:00
Subject: Cross tabulation

For a little background and comparison, there's an article on O'Reilly
(http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/12/04/crosstabs.html) that 
discusses the topic of server-side cross-tabulation, with respect to a 
Perl toolset (DBIx::SQLCrosstab).

I'm getting started on a project for a client that will involve building 
a variety of complex crosstabs on large sets of data. Unfortunately, 
while there is a consensus that ruby/rails/some-foss-db would be the 
preferred platform on which to code the app, there isn't time reinvent 
the crosstab wheel. The functionality needed here is a dealbreaker, and 
sadly to say, these types of queries seem to be supported much better 
within SQL Server than postgress/mysql, et al. Having become very 
attached to Ruby, Rails and <pick-your-free-db>, I will be sick with 
irony to have to use a lesser platform for the sake of expediency.

Does anyone know of a way to accomplish complex crosstabs from within a 
ruby/rails app, without having to rely on database specific queries 
(e.g. Microsoft SQL extensions), and without having to write it from 
scratch?

Thanks!

(If anyone is interested in starting a project to do this with 
Ruby/rails, feel free to email me. I would love to be involved.)

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