[Chicago-talk] Building a hierarchy

[Jay Strauss]

Hi,

I need to build a hierarchy out of some data to load into a RDBMS.  The data
looks like below.  I need to convert it to more like:

code, desc, parent_code

(where code is like "193200000X")

I'm struggling.

I think I could do this in a rigid manner by saying I have 4 indexes or
levels:
upper case roman
lower case alpha
lower case roman
numeric

and keeping track where I am, and I the parent one level above.

I'd like to do it flexibly, without having to know how many levels in
advance (I get similarly structured data with # of levels and info from time
to time).

But I don't know:

1) whats the best structure for this (I'm thinking an array of arrays)
2) how to traverse the array without knowing my indexes, i.e. go one level
up, go one level down

Can anyone suggest ways to skin this cat?

Thanks
Jay


I. Individual or Groups (of Individuals)
a. Group
i. Multi-Specialty  - 193200000X
ii. Single Specialty  - 193400000X
b. Allopathic & Osteopathic Physicians
i. Allergy & Immunology - 207K00000X
1. Allergy - 207KA0200X
2. Clinical & Laboratory Immunology - 207KI0005X
ii. Anesthesiology - 207L00000X
1. Addiction Medicine - 207LA0401X
2. Critical Care Medicine - 207LC0200X
3. Hospice and Palliative Medicine - 207LH0002X
4. Pain Medicine - 207LP2900X
5. Pediatric Anesthesiology - 207LP3000X
iii. Clinical Pharmacology - 208U00000X
iv. Colon & Rectal Surgery - 208C00000X
v. Dermatology - 207N00000X
1. Clinical & Laboratory Dermatological Immunology - 207NI0002X
2. Dermatopathology - 207ND0900X
3. MOHS-Micrographic Surgery - 207ND0101X
4. Pediatric Dermatology - 207NP0225X
5. Procedural Dermatology - 207NS0135X
vi. Electrodiagnostic Medicine - 204R00000X
vii. Emergency Medicine - 207P00000X
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