Usually, you'd have 3 tables: USER, FRIEND, and a third table named
something like USER_FRIEND. They'd be set up like:
USER:
emailID (PK)
userName
Password
Address
Etc
FRIEND:
emailID (PK)
USER_FRIEND
user_emailID (PK)
friend_emailID (PK)
with user_emailID a foreign key pointing to USER, friend_emailid a foreign
key pointing to FRIEND. This is the standard way of doing a many-many
relationship.
On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Ben A.H. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm having conceptualizing the correct relationship for what seems a very
> simple scenario:
>
> Scenario:
> I have a standard "USERS" table...
> USERS have a list of "FRIENDS", these can be other members or also non
> members... Similar to facebook...
>
> My main issue is conceptualizing the relationship for member to member
> contacts.
>
> TABLES:
> USER:
> emailID (PK)
> userName
> Password
> Address
> Etc
>
> FRIEND:
> emailID (PK)
> friendEmailID (PK)
>
> RELATIONSHIPS:
>
> USER.emailID (1) --- FRIEND.emailID (many)
> USER.emailID (many) --- FRIEND.friendEmailID (1)
>
> Does this work or is this a cyclical many-to-many relationship? (1 User can
> have many friends, 1 friend can belong to many users)... If so, what's the
> correct (normalized) way of representing this?
>
>
>
> --
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>
--
Jim Lyons
Web developer / Database administrator
http://www.weblyons.com
