What are the best practices for structuring database tables in PHP projects to facilitate data linking and retrieval?
When structuring database tables in PHP projects to facilitate data linking and retrieval, it is important to establish relationships between tables using foreign keys. This allows for efficient retrieval of related data through JOIN queries. Additionally, using indexes on columns that are frequently used for searching or sorting can improve query performance.
CREATE TABLE users (
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(50)
);
CREATE TABLE orders (
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
user_id INT,
total_amount DECIMAL(10, 2),
FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
);
CREATE INDEX idx_user_id ON orders(user_id);