What are the potential pitfalls of storing multiple values in a single column separated by commas in a database?
Storing multiple values in a single column separated by commas in a database can make it difficult to query and manipulate the data efficiently. It violates database normalization principles and can lead to issues such as difficulty in searching for specific values, updating individual values, and maintaining data integrity. To solve this issue, it is recommended to create a separate table to store the related values in a one-to-many relationship.
// Example of creating a separate table to store multiple values related to a main entity
CREATE TABLE main_entity (
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(50)
);
CREATE TABLE related_values (
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
main_entity_id INT,
value VARCHAR(50),
FOREIGN KEY (main_entity_id) REFERENCES main_entity(id)
);