Hi,

There must be a better way than I am doing this - not really language
specific but here is the problem stated in java like pseudo code:

I want to have user defined search results for common search
functionality.

I have search functionality provided as a service, which currently
returns an object lets say like the following (plus getters/setters):
public SearchResult {
  private int id;
  private String name;
  private String location;
  private Calendar birthDate;
}
public SearchResultList extends Vector {
  ...
}

I also have a database table which holds the users custom columns they
would like to list in their results
create table searchOption (   userid number, String name);
insert into searchOption values (1,'location');
insert into searchOption values (1,'birthDate');

So when the user searches I have

   SearchResultList list = service.getSearchResults(criteria);

What I currently do which is very clumsy

   FieldList fields = service.getUserFieldOptions(userid);

   DefaultTableModel table = new DefaultTableModel();
   // iterate through the fields and add columns

  Enumeration e1 = list.elements();
  while (e1.hasMoreElements()) {
     SearchResult result = (SearchResult) e1.nextElement();
      Vector datavalues = new Vector();
      Enumeration e2 = fields.elements();
       while (e2.hasMoreElements()) {
            Field field = (Field) e2.nextElement();
             if (field.getName() == "name")
                datavalues.add(result.getName());
             elseif (field.getName() == "birthdate")
               datavalues.add(result.getName());
             etc.
       }
       table.add(datavalues);
  }

 // finally display the tablemodel