RE: [PHP] File upload and database optimization questions

> 1. > 2. Both seem fine to me. > 3. At the time of upload, it is possible to specify a list of > users who can "view" and "modify" the file. Currently I am storing > this list as a whitespace-separated list in a mySQL TEXT column. > > Column "view" data: 3 11 1 > > At the time of displaying the list, I first SELECT * the entire list > of files, and then use explode() in combination with a "for" loop to > split up the "view" field and match each element againt the current > user's ID. Only if a match is found will I display the filename. > > I suspect this approach is not optimal. Can anyone suggest a > better approach? Rather than a whitespace-separated list, store one ID as a "|ID|". So your field might look like: Column "view" data: '|3||11||1|' That way, knowing the user's ID who is viewing docs, you can select <<blah blah>> WHERE view LIKE '|$thisusersidnumber|' ... no longer any need to step through and explode the array. Jason