What are the potential pitfalls of storing multiple values in a single cell in a MySQL database when using PHP?

Storing multiple values in a single cell in a MySQL database can make it difficult to query and manipulate the data efficiently. It violates the principles of database normalization and can lead to data redundancy and inconsistency. To solve this issue, it's recommended to create a separate table to store the related values in individual rows, linked by a foreign key. 

// Example of creating a separate table to store multiple values

// Connect to the database
$connection = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Create a new table to store multiple values
$query = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS multiple_values (
            id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
            main_id INT,
            value VARCHAR(255)
          )";
$connection->query($query);

// Insert multiple values for a specific main_id
$main_id = 1;
$values = ["value1", "value2", "value3"];

foreach ($values as $value) {
    $query = "INSERT INTO multiple_values (main_id, value) VALUES ($main_id, '$value')";
    $connection->query($query);
}

Keywords

MySQL database design normalization explode implode

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