Posted by "Gustav Wiberg" on 09/25/05 08:01

----- Original Message -----
From: "blackwater dev" <blackwaterdev@gmail.com>
To: <php-general@lists.php.net>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 4:17 AM
Subject: [PHP] serialize


I have an app that stores evaluation scores so I have 30+ values all
within a certain range, currently in the db, each of these values has
it's own column:

Table test
id
user_id
motivation
caring
personal_characteristics
creativity,
...etc.

If the client decides they want to trap more characteristics, it
requires changes to the table structure and the table quickly gets
large with 30+ columns. I was thinking of just compacting all of
these down to one column and then using serialize/unserialize and
storing an array of the test scores....is this the best way??

Thanks!

Hi!

It doesn't seem like "good" db-practise to set all the values in one field.
You shouldn't be forced to change database-structure just because the user
inputs more information.

You may reconsider using several tables and do relations between the
tables..

/G
http://www.varupiraten.se/

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