How to have a single column holding multiple INT id's

[ChrisC123]

Hello all.

 

I am fairly new to php/mysql and have been using it daily for about two months now.

 

I was wondering what alternatives I could use to replace multiple columns that all hold similar data? I am big on searching for solutions, I am just having a hard time figuring out what it is I need to search for.

 

Right now I have a table called 'user' with three simular columns called:

pri_device_id

sec_device_id

alt_device_id

 

They all can either be null or have an INT(11) from table 'devices', column 'device_id'.

 

I have been using simple query selects and if else functions up to this point. The problem is that there are rare situations when there might be more than three assigned devices per user (or none and all) and it just seems like there would be a better way to do this with only one columnsomehow holding multiple ids.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Jessica]

Google "data normalization"

[ChrisC123]

Yep. Got it. Thanks!

 

I had already done a good amount of reading on normalization and refined my db structure once from that reading. After your suggestion one search I did was for “data normalization multiple int one column” which did have some interesting info on making that work. After an hour or so of reading I ended up coming to the conclusion that I was doing it all wrong in the first place and once again made changes to my db structure removing the need for my original question and trying to adhere more closely to the normal form. Thanks again.

Edited February 17, 2013 by ChrisC123

[Jessica]

Good job.