What are the potential pitfalls of storing complex data structures, like language proficiency levels, in a single database field in PHP?

Storing complex data structures like language proficiency levels in a single database field in PHP can make it challenging to query and manipulate the data effectively. To solve this issue, it's recommended to normalize the data by creating separate tables for language proficiency levels and establishing relationships between them. 

// Example of normalizing language proficiency levels data in PHP

// Create a table for language proficiency levels
CREATE TABLE language_proficiency_levels (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    level_name VARCHAR(50)
);

// Create a table for users with a foreign key reference to language proficiency levels
CREATE TABLE users (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(50),
    language_proficiency_level_id INT,
    FOREIGN KEY (language_proficiency_level_id) REFERENCES language_proficiency_levels(id)
);

// Insert language proficiency levels data
INSERT INTO language_proficiency_levels (id, level_name) VALUES (1, 'Beginner');
INSERT INTO language_proficiency_levels (id, level_name) VALUES (2, 'Intermediate');
INSERT INTO language_proficiency_levels (id, level_name) VALUES (3, 'Advanced');

// Insert user data with language proficiency level
INSERT INTO users (id, name, language_proficiency_level_id) VALUES (1, 'John Doe', 2);

Keywords

PHP database data structure normalization serialization

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