Grouping Table Data As Column Headers on Excel Sheet

Question

I have a Questionnaire application that I am building for one of our teams and I have having an issue with making the report like they would like it (if at all possible). What I currently have is:

var completedSurveys = (from s in db.SurveyResponses
                                    join d in db.Demographics on s.SurveyID equals d.SurveyID into grpjoin
                                    from d in grpjoin.DefaultIfEmpty()
                                    select new
                                    {
                                        Survey_ID = s.SurveyID,
                                        Survey_Date = s.Survey.SurveyDate,
                                        Question = s.Questions.QuestionTxt,
                                        Response = s.Responses.ResponseTxt,        
                                        Zip_Code = d.ZipCode,
                                        Department = d.CityDepartments.Department,
                                        Ace_Score = s.Survey.AceScore,

                                    }).ToList();

which after running through the gridview/excel code produces:

My Current Excel Sheet

and what they would like is an excel sheet that has the Questions as column headers along with SurveyID, Date, Zip, Department & Score with the responses to the questions as the row data that way everything shows only once. Something like this excel sheet I got from somewhere else:

Example

I've tried multiple different groupings for example:

    var completedSurveys = (from s in db.SurveyResponses
                            join d in db.Demographics on s.SurveyID equals d.SurveyID into grpjoin
                            from d in grpjoin.DefaultIfEmpty()
                            group new {s.Questions.QuestionTxt, s.Survey.SurveyDate } by new { s.SurveyID, s.Responses.ResponseTxt, d.ZipCode, d.CityDepartments.Department, s.Survey.AceScore } into g
                            orderby g.Key.SurveyID ascending
                            select new
                            {
                                Survey_ID = g.Key.SurveyID,
                                Survey_Date = g.Select(s => s.SurveyDate),
                                Response = g.Key.ResponseTxt,
                                Zip = g.Key.ZipCode,
                                Department = g.Key.Department,
                                Ace_Score = g.Key.AceScore

                            }).ToList();

but I'm still not quite getting what I want. If I have to tell them that what I've already got is as good as it gets, then that's fine but I thought I would at least reach out for some advice. Any Assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

You've got a few unknowns in your question, but if the crux of it is "how do you pivot data in c#", then I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that it's doable. The bad news is that it's not pretty.

First, you would want to group your "completedSurveys" by surveyId:

var groupedSurveys = 
    completedSurveys
    .GroupBy(g => g.Survey_ID);

Then create a class of what you'd like your individual row to look like:

public class survey {
    public int Survey_ID;
    public DateTime date;
    public int Zip_Code;
    public int Ace_Score;
    public string Q1;
    public string Q2;
    public string Q3;   
}

Then, create a home for such objects:

var surveys = new List<survey>();

Then, loop through the groupings in the grouped surveys. We'll call this the outer loop.

In each outer loop:

• create a new instance of "survey"
• the common data to all items will exist in the first item, so you could just populate using it for this purpose. If nulls get in your way, then you'll have to do the appropriate logic inside the inner loop (described next)
• loop through the individual items in your grouping (the inner loop)
• in the inner loop, use a switch statement to map the item in the group to the appropriate field in the "survey" class using the expected question text.
• when done with the inner loop, push the survey instance to the surveys home.
• move on to the next outer loop iteration

Sample code for this is as follows:

foreach (var surveyItems in groupedSurveys) {

    var firstItem = surveyItems.FirstOrDefault();

    var survey = new survey() {
        Survey_ID = firstItem.Survey_ID,
        date = firstItem.Survey_Date,
        Zip_Code = firstItem.Zip_Code,
        Ace_Score = firstItem.Ace_Score
    };

    foreach(var item in surveyItems) {
        switch (item.Question) {
            case "Text for question 1":
                survey.Q1 = item.Response;
                break;
            case "Text for question 2":
                survey.Q2 = item.Response;
                break;
            case "Text for question 3":
                survey.Q3 = item.Response;
                break;
        }
    }

    surveys.Add(survey);

}

You'll see that your surveys object now has pivoted data, with one "row" for each survey.

However, this is all without knowing about your excel writing code. It might be wiser to keep things "normalized" here and parse it over there. You can also consider pivoting at the server level. Pivot statements there are probably going to be a little friendlier.

Also, I don't want to cut into your logic to create "completedSurveys". But suffice it to say, if you cut it up, you might be able to make it look more elegant as a whole.