Question

How would I draw up this design in a database?

• A product can be physical, digital, or a service.

• A digital product is a product.

• A physical product is a product.

• A service is a product.

Would it be advisable to use a different unique identifier than just an auto-incremented id? Perhaps a hash of the id and some other identifier?

Answer 1

Auto incremented id’s will work fine. I’d recommend a separate table for types, in case you want to add more in the future.

Product
id  type_id  name
1   2        candy
2   2        car
3   3        yard work

Type
id  name
1   digital
2   physical
3   service