Question

How do I link or add the field with all my users called “username” from my main table to another table so I can run checks and compare values without having to add a ton of rows to my main table? This would be a much cleaner and more organized setup.

Table called login_users. This is my main table that stores their basic information

username       email                 password
Anthony        [e-mail]
Josh           [e-mail]
Tsuyoshi       [e-mail]

Table 2 called badge_status. This table will hold their status with whether or not they have unlocked an achievement on my site. I want to bring in the usernames.

username       badge1               badge2
Anthony        locked               unlocked
Josh           unlocked             locked
Tsuyoshi       unlocked             locked

Also, could table 2 automatically be updated with a new user when they sign up since all new sign ups are imported into the first table. As a side note, I am using phpmyadmin.

Thanks for any help with getting this set up. Very much appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you should normalize your data by using the following schema instead:

• login_users [Table]
  • username
  • email
  • password
• badges [Table]
  • BadgeId int PRIMARY KEY
  • BadgeName
  • … (any other relevant columns)
• users_badges [Table]
  • username (foreign key constraint to username column on the login_users table)
  • BadgeId (foreign key constraint to BadgeId column on the badges table)

This will allow you add as many badges as you want without having to ever change your database schema or scripts.