Best Way to Handle Meta Information in a SQL Database
- by danielhanly.com
I've got a database where I want to store user information and user_meta information.
The reason behind setting it up in this way was because the user_meta side may change over time and I would like to do this without disrupting the master user table.
If possible, I would like some advice on how to best set up this meta data table.
I can either set it as below:
+----+---------+----------+--------------------+
| id | user_id | key | value |
+----+---------+----------+--------------------+
| 1 | 1 | email | [email protected] |
| 2 | 1 | name | user name |
| 3 | 1 | address | test address |
...
Or, I can set it as below:
+----+---------+--------------------+--------------------+--------------+
| id | user_id | email | name | address |
+----+---------+--------------------+--------------------+--------------+
| 1 | 1 | [email protected] | user name | test address |
Obviously, the top verison is more flexible, but the bottom version is space saving and perhaps more efficient, returning all the data as a single record.
Which is the best way to go about this?
Or, am I going about this completely wrong and there's another way I've not thought of?
