Hi All,
Not really a MySQL-oriented question. But this board's so active I decided to post my
question here in hope I'll get some lights on my database design.
Using Amazon as an example, say if I have a table that stores user information and
each user is assigned an unique id (field might look like "id int unsigned primary key
"). What design should I go after? Should I go for one big table with a definition
that might look like
CREATE TABLE TransactionRecord (
user_id int unsigned,
book_id int unsigned
index(user_id),
index(book_id)
);
then just insert one row for each book bought by a particular user? I was worrying
that the user_id field might have a lot of repeated, identical value (one user has
purchased many books). The book_id will just be worse if a popular book is sold like
500K copies. I was thinking lots of identical value in one field will simply cancel
out the use of index.
Do I have other design alternatives? Shed me some lights if you can :)
I've got quite a few MySQL books on hand, but they focus on teaching readers what
MySQL can do and how to get the most out of MySQL. Would someone suggest a book
that's more related to database design and preferably have some real-world scenarios
as examples.
Regards,
Jindo
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