Short answer: Yes. You want to hang a new table with a 1-Many relationship off with the 2 columns, just as you said. It will mean you need to do a few extra queries to store/retrieve your data, but you will almost invariably be happier for it in the long run.
-----Original Message----- From: Joel Firestone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 08:48 To: SQL Subject: 1 to many relationships Everyone: If this has been asked to death, I apologize now. : ) I'm currently redoing a system, and the way the previous developer was storing data for a user was to have a list of ID's as a list in 1 column of a table. Like so: Members table: 1|Test|[EMAIL PROTECTED]|1,2,3 2|Test|[EMAIL PROTECTED]|3 1|Test|[EMAIL PROTECTED]|1,3 etc Songs table: 1|Song Name 2|Song #2 3|Song #3 etc Now, after reading some stuff here, I don't think this is the best way to do it. So, from a dbms standpoint, what is the best practice for storing this data? A seperate table with just the members ID and 1 song ID? Or is there a better way to do it. Note: This is a MySQL db, and not MS SQL or Oracle. So I can't do sub-queries or SP's. Thanks for your time. ====================== Joel Firestone - Developer http://www.dmv.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=t:6 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=s:6 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=<:emailid:>.<:userid:>.<:listid:> Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm
