Database Management

Question

Just wondering how people manage the content that they pull
out from the
database.
For instance if some text was required to be highlighted bold
in the
middle of some other text, like this example:
The quick brown fox {jumps over} the lazy dog.
The way I'm doing it at the moment is to surround the {jumps
over} with
<strong> tags in the database.
However I seem to recall some more advanced database
exponents saying
its not a good idea to include html tags within a database?
Also take this example:
I have two items for sale. Item one has one price associated
with it and
item two has two prices associated with it. How the heck can
a details
page be set up to accomodate both one price and two prices.
The way I'm doing it at the moment is again using html tags
in the database.
Price Field
<p>£20.75</p>
and
<p>£18.75</p>
<p>£25.50</p>
I dont want to use two, three or four price fields in a
master details
page because those items that only have one price don't
require such a
set up. Plus I dont know at the outset of building the
database how many
alternative prices there wil be.
Is there a better and more efficient way of doing this as
again I seem
to recall there should be only one piece of information in a
database field
Cheers
Os

Answer 1

> The way you are suggesting, I think, is that there be
several price
> fields, maybe price_1, price_2 price_3 etc.
Nope. He is suggesting that you have two tables -
table1 - all the data except for price
table2 - two fields:
1. product ID
2. price
In table2 you might have several records containing the same
productID but
different prices.
When you define your recordset, you pull from both tables,
with a
SELECT *
FROM table1, table2
WHERE table1.productID = table2.productID. I think.
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"Osgood" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
> Michael Fesser wrote:
>
>> .oO(Osgood)
>>
>>
>>>Just wondering how people manage the content that
they pull out from the
>>>database.
>>>
>>>For instance if some text was required to be
highlighted bold in the
>>>middle of some other text, like this example:
>>>
>>>The quick brown fox {jumps over} the lazy dog.
>>>
>>>The way I'm doing it at the moment is to surround
the {jumps over} with
>>><strong> tags in the database.
>>>
>>>However I seem to recall some more advanced
database exponents saying its
>>>not a good idea to include html tags within a
database?
>>
>>
>> Depends.
>>
>> Usually I try to avoid storing HTML in the database.
The data should
>> always be in a raw format without any
output-specific encoding if
>> possible. For rather simple things like above
something like BBCode
>> might be enough.
>>
>> Of course no rule without exception: On one of my
sites we get a lot of
>> third-party content each month, which has to go into
the DB and already
>> contains HTML lists, tables and such. It would have
been way too much
>> work to invent another more generic way of storing
that (XML, BBCode,
>> Wiki-style or whatever), so I simply store it as-is
in a large TEXT
>> field.
>>
>>
>>>Also take this example:
>>>
>>>I have two items for sale. Item one has one price
associated with it and
>>>item two has two prices associated with it. How
the heck can a details
>>>page be set up to accomodate both one price and
two prices.
>>
>>
>> Two tables: one for the product details, one for all
the prices. It's an
>> 1:m relation.
>>
>>
>>>The way I'm doing it at the moment is again using
html tags in the
>>>database.
>>>
>>>Price Field
>>>
>>><p>£20.75</p>
>>>
>>>and
>>>
>>><p>£18.75</p>
>>><p>£25.50</p>
>>
>>
>> Ugly. What if you would want to search the DB for
all products with or
>> below a given price? Impossible with your current
structure.
>
>
>>>I dont want to use two, three or four price
fields in a master details
>>>page because those items that only have one price
don't require such a
>>>set up. Plus I dont know at the outset of
building the database how many
>>>alternative prices there wil be.
>>
>>
>> That's exactly where you use a second table as
mentioned. And not only
>> for the prices, but whenever there's a chance that
there might be more
>> than one value required. Product categories would be
another example.
>
> Humm..... so how does that work on a master details
page?
>
> At the moment I just bind the 'price field' to the
container in the
> details page which I want the stored information to come
into. ONLY ONE
> field involved.
>
> The way you are suggesting, I think, is that there be
several price
> fields, maybe price_1, price_2 price_3 etc.
>
> However that means on the master details page I would
need to use
> something like this?
>
> <p><?php echo $row_rsPrice['price_1'];
?></p>
> <p><?php echo $row_rsPrice['price_2'];
?></p>
> <p><?php echo $row_rsPrice['price_3'];
?></p>
>
> However say there is no price_2 or price_3 for certain
items. That means I
> just get left with empty <p></p> tags in the
code?
>
>
>
>