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Asked: 2026-05-13T22:23:25+00:00

i am tracking exercises. i have a workout table with id exercise_id (foreign key

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i am tracking exercises. i have a workout table with

  • id
  • exercise_id (foreign key into exercise table)

now, some exercises like weight training would have the fields:
weight, reps (i just lifted 10 times @ 100 lbs.)

and other exercises like running would have the fields: time, distance (i just ran 5 miles and it took 1 hours)

should i store these all in the same table and just have some records have 2 fields filled in and the other fields blank or should this be broken down into multiple tables.

at the end of the day, i want to query for all exercises in a day (which will include both types of exercises) so i will have to have some “switch” somewhere to differentiate the different types of exercises

what is the best database design for this situation

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There are a few different patterns for modelling object oriented inheritance in database tables. The most simple being Single table inheritance, which will probably work great in this case.

    Implementing it is mostly according to your own suggestion to have some fields filled in and the others blank.

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