I have come across a need of storing runtime determined values in a SQL database.For example, there is a GUI where a user can add new editable fields. So the user adds a field Name, chooses the value type String and fills in the value Arthur. Then the user adds a new field Money, chooses the value type Decimal and fills in the value 10.05.As seen above, the user is able to add any fields with any value types. My idea is to have a SQL table schema as follow:FieldName (varchar) - eg. 'Money' or 'IsAlive'FieldType (varchar) - eg 'Decimal' or 'Boolean'FieldValue (varchar) - eg. '10.5' or '1'This would mean that I can store any pre-defined data type in the table whether it's a string, boolean or long. The problem is that I am not sure it's the best approach to cast those values to string and then cast again when reading from the table.Another option would be to have a column of each type but that sounds even worse.Does my approach to cast everything to string sounds sensible or should I try something else?
Storing values in SQL whose types are determined in runtime
sql;type casting