Posted by windandwaves on 05/14/06 13:33

Hi Folk

I have to store up to eight boolean bits of information about an item
in my database.

e.g.

[ ] with restaurant
[ ] drive-through facility
[ ] yellow windows
[ ] wifi factilities
etc...

There are three ways of storing this information in my mysql database
A. add eight fields (tiny integer)
B. add one tiny integer and create a function in PHP that can translate
the number stored into a eight boolean values (the bits)
C. create a table which list
ItemID
Associated characteristics
In C, you will only list the characteristics that are true for the item
listed.

Option B is the most efficient in MySql, but would you recommend it
when creating a PHP website. The problem is that the user needs to
enter them with a nice webform, etc...

What do you reckon.

TIA

- Nicolaaas

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