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Asked: 2026-05-15T06:12:01+00:00

I can’t work out what I should be doing here… I have a database

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I can’t work out what I should be doing here…

I have a database with around 20,000 records. Each of these records has about 20 columns to it.

I want to add around 20 or so additional columns to this database which would be on the lines of a load of different URLs for each record. Mostly, these will be blank.

What’s the “right” way of doing this:

  1. Add 20 additional columns (youtubeurl, facebookurl, etc)
    (Benefits: only one URL call // Drawbacks: makes my database much larger)

  2. Add an additional table with three columns – ‘ID’,’URLType’,’URL’ which I can additionally call?
    (Benefits: keeps main table much smaller // Drawbacks: additional SQL query required)

What should I be doing?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Everything else being equal, I would go with option (2). This allows you to keep your data normalized and offers flexibility if you need to add more sites in the future.

    FWIW, this does not require an extra query to SELECT data, as you can just JOIN to the other table. But of course, it would require extra INSERT / UPDATE queries.

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