Thanks for your comments Chris and Rob... Chris you have great points to make, my ears are wide open...
The reason I thought about storing the array in a blob is because every test generated will be different. the 102 question test will be generate randomly from a bank of 500 questions.. That means that the order of questions will also be different... So I would like to find a way to store that unique test for the student or administrator to review.. I do understand PHP & MySQL very well... But I am no master, that's why I was asking... Any other ideas or recommendations for this... Words of wisdom are also welcome :o) So thanks for your input, Joe -----Original Message----- From: Chris W [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 11:54 PM To: Robert Cummings; PHP-General Subject: Re: [PHP] Question about array limits & practicallity Robert Cummings wrote: >>Also can I store those arrays as a blob in MySQL? >> >> > >You could, but you'd be better off storing them in normalized tables >IMHO. > > In this cans I will have to strongly agree with Rob, but I also have to add a few comments. Why on earth would you store an array as a blob in a database!? That's like spending $10,000 on a new storage system to organize all the junk in your garage, and then ripping out all the bins and shelves and cabinet door and just dumping all your junk in there. You might as well just put it in some file on the hard drive. If your using a database and you don't know what normalization is or you don't know how to tell if a database is normalized, STOP and drop everything till you learn the basics or normalization. I don't mean become an expert or anything, you don't need to be able describe the intricacy of Boyc-Codd normal form from memory, just learn enough to have a good grasp on everything up to 3rd normal form, which isn't all that hard. Chris W I'm waiting till tomorrow to respond on all the challenges to my last post, so I can respond to all of them at once. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
