Question

I am developing a dating website that will be based on lots of personal fields that users will choose from a list. I have 43 different fields that the user must fill – each field has multiple answer options.

I have 3 options:

1. to build all of the site hardcoded and set all the fields and their options in the code – that will be difficult to maintain.

2. another option that I see now is to open a table for each field list and to fill it with its options.

3. to open one table for each field list and to save its name and its id and another table for the field options wich will include fields id , and the name of the options.

Those are the options I see – what will be the best way to go? Are there any other options I dont know of?

Answer 1

Create a table “FIELDS” with ID and Name and a table “FIELD_OPTIONS” with an ID, the FIELD_ID and the Name of the option.

This would allow maximum flexibility.
For example, you could add a column “ALLOWS_MULTISELECT” to the “FIELDS” table to allow the selection of multiple options.