[SOLVED] getting unique votes

[bschvy]

If you have a website using php/mysql where people log in with a username and you want them to vote on a poll, what is the best approach to make sure each username gets one vote per poll?

[keeB]

Database or PHP wise?

[bschvy]

Database wise

[keeB]

create table person (
   userid int not null
);

create table poll (

userid int references user(userid,; -- creates foreign key on user.userid
other_columns text

);

 

Load the poll, iterate through userId's. If any match current user's id, display error.

 

 

[dbo]

I would think you would just want to query the said poll table before allowing them to vote. If you know they are logged in you should have their user id. It should be a simple query of the poll table that determines whether or not that user id exists for the selected poll. There should not be any need to iterate over the list.

[bschvy]

Does this mean making a table for each poll that I have?  Will that take up a lot of memory if there are many polls?

[dbo]

Nope, just need a poll id.

[bschvy]

cool, thanks

[dbo]

Sure thing. If you post your proposed database schema I'm sure we can help make sure you've got something that makes sense.