Question

Guys back to being stuck with my sql layout on my tables, I just cant seem to understand how to do this.

I need Users to be able to be friends with other Users (Users are kept in the User table) im trying to create a “Friends” table so they can relate to one another.

I need the UserID stored along with FriendID, UserID is of the current user and FriendID is related to the UserID of the friend. ARGh so confusing.

Im getting lost even talking about it again, basically the way ive written my code i need the FriendID to relate to the UserID of the user table so i can find the person im after so I can display there credentials on the current “UserID” page but I also need some way to find out all the current UserIDs friends

UserID relates to all current friends (FriendID)
FriendID relates to a user in the User table (UserID)

So far all I have is this. How do I refrence FriendID back to UserID? If thats even the way.

Answer 1

This is effectively a many-many relationship between UserA (Initiating User) and UserB (Target User) you need a IsFriendsWith table which associates the two, eg

User
-------------
UserID [PK]
Name
etc,

IsFriendsWith
-------------
InitiatingUserID [FK]
TargetUserID [FK]

So you can use this to find (for any initiating user) who they are friends with, and for any target user, who has made friends with them.

EDIT – I am a SQL Server user, but the following query (or something close to it) should work in mysql in order to list all friends of user whose ID is defined in the parameter @UserID

SELECT u2.Name FROM Users u1
    INNER JOIN IsFriendsWith ifw ON u1.UserID = ifw.InitiatingUserID
    INNER JOIN Users u2 ON u2.UserID = ifw.TargetUserID
    WHERE u1.UserID = @UserID