Question

I am coding a classifieds ad web app.

What is the optimal way to structure the database for this?
Because of the high repeatability, would it be faster (in terms of searching/indexing) to have a separate table in the database for each city?

Or would it be okay to just have one table for every city (it would have a lot of rows..).

The classifieds table has id, user_id, city_name, category,[description and detail fields].

Answer 1

You should break up the elements in your table into 4 tables.

The first table, a city table, would have city_id and city_name. This table would need a unique index on city_name, city_id, as well as a primary index on city_id.

The second table, a category table, would have category_id, and category. This table would need a unique index on category, category_id, as well as a primary index on category_id.

The third table, a user table, would have user_id, user identification.

The fourth table, an ad table, would have ad_id, title, description, and date_inserted. City_id, category_id, and user_id would be foreign keys to your ad table,