Re: CSV storage InnoDB?

On Nov 26, 2012, at 9:22 PM, tamouse mailing lists wrote:

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 8:10 PM, Karl DeSaulniers <karl@designdrumm.comwrote:

On Nov 26, 2012, at 8:01 PM, Karl DeSaulniers wrote:

On Nov 26, 2012, at 7:29 PM, Bastien wrote:

Bastien Koert On 2012-11-26, at 7:43 PM, Karl DeSaulniers <karl@designdrumm.com> wrote:

Hello all, Quick question. What is the best way to store a comma separated list of discount codes in a InnoDB? Text, varchar, blob, ? I want to be able to store discount codes offered to users in their profile, in their cart, etc. So I am thinking of storing the codes as a comma separated list that I can then refer to, add to or remove codes from. The codes will change every once and a while and they list of codes may be rather large after say a year, so I am shying away from an enum() or anything like that. Any help/pointers is greatly appreciated. Best, Karl -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Karl. Is there a way to group these codes? Can profiles be the same for different users? If so another table for the code and a join table for the users to codes might be simpler to manage Bastien

Hi Bastien, Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I should have elaborated. There is a table that holds all the discount codes. Keeps them grouped with a product id or if they are to be applied cart wide. So the field I am asking for will hold codes that are being used by either a product or by a user or if it is a cart discount. Each have their own tables, the products, the users and the cart. In these tables is where I need to insert this field. An example of the discount table would be like: Discount table:

|   discount code   |      product id     |      discount perc.     |
discount type               |

+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------------+

|    8lKzv_===      |             22           |                  20
|                   item                     |

+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------------+

|       NpLK23       |              0             |                  50
|                   cart                     |

+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------------+ but in the user table for instance: User table:

|                             user_discounts

| +---------------------------------------------------------------+

|    8lKzv_===, YjMlio_===, NpLK23, hDflp0_=    |

+---------------------------------------------------------------+ Just trying to figure out the best way to store multiple variables if you will in one field like so. Or if this is even the best way to do such a thing. I am open to alternatives. I will need to read this new filed out of the database as an array that I can then utilize with an in_array or something of the sort. There may be a best practices on this that I am not aware of with my somewhat limited PHP exp. Hope that makes more sense. TIA. Best, Karl DeSaulniers Design Drumm http://designdrumm.com -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

I think I may have asked this already a year or so ago, but cannot find my old emails. Sorry for any redundancy. Best, Karl DeSaulniers Design Drumm http://designdrumm.com -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Hi, Karl, Your idea can work -- storing the list of discount codes as comma delimited (or some known delimiter that won't show up in the codes) is pretty easy, and when you fetch it out you can explode it into an array, and use in_array to check. (Something you might want to consider is storing it as a JSON string as well.) There's also the "right" way to do this, for some value of "right", which is the many-to-many relationship using a foreign key table. This can be painful if you're not really strong on SQL, especially dealing with updates and deletes. (Example: if you delete a discount code, you need to delete the associated records in the foreign key table.) Generally this sort of operation is best done as stored procedures, rather than multiple queries from PHP. Question: do the discount codes only apply to one product, or can a discount code be used for several products? If the latter, then you have the same sort of issue of a many-to-many relationship, requiring the foreign key table there... --PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Hi guys, Thanks for your responses. I do have a auto incremented id for the codes. Yes multiple product can have the same code. Table is as follows. CREATE TABLE discounts ( d_id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, p_id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', d_discode varchar(16) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '', d_type enum('item','cart') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'item', d_discamt float(5,2) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.00', d_discper int(3) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', d_qty int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', d_description varchar(25) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '', d_expire datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00', d_user varchar(30) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '', d_userip varchar(15) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '', d_date datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00', PRIMARY KEY (d_id), KEY d_discode (d_discode), KEY d_expire (d_expire) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 ; This is where the discounts and their codes and any info are stored including who set the discount (this user does not apply to our situation, FYI). Then in say the user table I set the codes that user gets to use. ... u_discodes (???This is my question. What to use???) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '', ... I just need to store the separate codes a user has available to them here. So what would be the best suited? I am thinking a blob or text, because like tamouse said, I can explode the results and or check an in_array on the results. It seems the logical route to me for what I am doing. u_discodes just is a reference to check against. I then apply the amounts or percentages according to what is in the discounts table for that code. Am I moling this? Missing something? I'd like ( I guess ) to stay away from creating separate tables that hold the references for users, products, carts, etc and their codes. To me the blob seems so much simpler. But alas, I may have answered my own question. : \ Best, Karl Karl DeSaulniers Design Drumm http://designdrumm.com