I know that this is the standard means of dealing with a many to many relationship, I'm just not sure it fits here.
> USER: > emailID (PK) > userName > Password > Address > Etc > > FRIEND: > emailID (PK) > > USER_FRIEND > user_emailID (PK) > friend_emailID (PK) So if I want a list of USER [EMAIL PROTECTED]'s friends: SELECT friend_emailID from USER_FRIEND WHERE user_emailID="[EMAIL PROTECTED]" In this (and pretty much every case), the FRIEND table is useless and doesn't make sense logically. *I THINK I EXPLAINED THINGS INCORRECTLY* Let me try again: * I'm not sure if it's even a true many to many relationship as this is actually a relationship between ONE RECORD in a TABLE and a ANOTHER RECORD in THE SAME TABLE! A USER is: USER emailID userName A friend is really just another RECORD in the USER table. i.e. IF I HAD TO MAP THE RELATIONSHIP LOGICALLY, IT WOULD BE: USER: emailID userName | 1 | many FRIEND: emailID | many | 1 USER: emailID username (i.e. it's two records in the same USER table) How are relationships between records in the same table usually dealt with in terms of design? Implementation? ThanX, Ben ""Jim Lyons"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Indexes speed up joins. Foreign keys should be indexes themselves, so > they > can also speed up joins. If the FK is not an index, it won't help. So, > index your FKs > > On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Ben A.H. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Does using foreign keys simply enforce referential integrity OR can it >> also >> speed up JOIN queries? >> >> >> >> -- >> MySQL General Mailing List >> For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql >> To unsubscribe: >> http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> > > > -- > Jim Lyons > Web developer / Database administrator > http://www.weblyons.com > -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]