Survey - storing multiple choice and free-form text

[mcr29]

I've been asked to build a survey database. The survey is to be dynamic, allowing any number of questions to be part of the current survey. So I've got a Survey table with SurveyDetail, and a Questions table with a column named 'Active' for that purpose. This makes storing answers a bit difficult. Some are multiple choice, in which case it's as simple as storing an AnswerID in SurveyDetail that links to a Answer table that links to the Question table. But I'm stumped as to how to store free form text. The only solution I've been able to come up with is to store both AnswerID and Answer (text field) in SurveyDetail, allowing both to be NULL and outer joining to the Answer table. This is obviously not the best solution. I'm sure there is a more elegant way of doing this. I hope I've made myself clear, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[NeoPa]

I'm getting some of what you're saying, and it's clear you're not here to learn any basic concepts, but I'm not really getting precisely what your problem is. From the wording of your question I'm sure you'll understand why that's important, coming from the other side of a web page.