I have a problem and was wondering if anyone could help or if it is even possible to have an algorithm for something like this.
I need to create a predictive ordering wizard. So based on previous sales, we will determine that that a certain amount of an item is required. E.g 31 apples. Now i need to work out the number of cases that needs to be ordered. If the cases come in say 60, 30, 15, 10 apples, the order should be a case of 30 and a case of 10 apples.
The number of items that need to be ordered change in each row of the result set. The case sizes could also change for each item. So some items may have an option of 5 different cases and some items may land up with an option of only one case.
Other examples would be i need 39 cans of coke and the cases come in only 24 per case. Therefore needing 2 cases. I need 2 shots of baileys and the bottle of baileys come in 50cl or 70cl. Therefore i need the 50cl.
The results sets columns are ItemName, ItemSize, QuantityRequired, PackSize and PackSizeMultiple.
The ItemName is the item to be ordered. ItemSize is the size the item is used in eg. can of coke. QuantityRequired how man of the item, in this case cans of coke, need to be ordered. PackSize is the size of the case. PackSizeMultiple is the number to multiply the item with to work out how many of the items are in the case.
ps. this will be a query in SQL Server 2008