This sounds like the start of the classic "single table with a thousand unnamed rows in it" story :-)
The correct database-oriented answer is to have a separate table for each product type, or perhaps a separate table for each separate classification and then a master table storing product IDs, types and titles (for example). This makes it impossible to try and compare separate product types (because you can't). Is there a particular use case you are planning to use this data for? Jevon On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Aaron Cooper wrote: > > Howdy folks, > > > > I have a bit of a weird one, and it's more to do with design than > > coding of any sort. > > > > To keep things simple: > > > > We have a MySQL table called display_type. This table is used to store > > config data for a range of physical devices that do certain jobs. This > > table holds Min Value, Max Value, Default Value, Unit. > > > > The data stored in this table can pertain to many devices that work > > with different sets of variables. E.G. It could be a media player, > > where Min, Max and Default Vals are volume settings. It could be a > > thermometer where Min, Max and Default are temperature ranges for > > display purposes only. > > > > Because there is such a wide range of formats for this table, each > > with a different way of displaying these values to the user, we also > > want to store a display format for each record to use in printf or > > number_format functions in the code. Not too different to how you > > format numbers in Excel. > > > > The table in question is more of a lookup table with a finite data > > collection, although it will be added to as time goes by. It is > > maintained by us, and us alone (no user input will reach it) > > > > All the values (Min, Max, Default and Current) are stored MySQL's > > decimal format with 6 decimal places. > > > > Any ideas on the best way of storing formatting (and later using > > in PHP) masks like this? > > > > Oh, and and by the way, the backend is being built on the Zend > > Framework if anyone is aware of a nifty way one of those libraries can > > aid in this. > > > > Cheers > > Aaron > > > > > > > Are you wanting to do the formatting in php or the database? If using > mysql5 why not just use a view for each different device that needs a > separate format of the data? > > Rob > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
