Question

I have products in my database (MySQL).
I have my prices based on different combinations of options for my products.
I have the following data:

PRODUCTS

prodID | prodName
1      | Ball

OPTIONS

optionID | optionName | prodID
1        | color      | 1
2        | size       | 1
3        | material   | 1

OPTIONVALUES

ovID | optionID | ovValue
1    | 1        | red
2    | 1        | blue
3    | 2        | small
4    | 2        | big
5    | 3        | wood
6    | 3        | glass

for prices I would like to have like this:

red small wood ball – $13
red small glass ball – 14
red big wood ball – 16
red big glass ball – 17
blue small wood ball – 12.5
[…]

How can I design the database structure for this?
I have tried several ways but none was good. if the number of the options were static then every option could have its own table, but this was that is not a good solution.

Answer 1

I like what you already have. If you want it to be fully flexible as i guess you do, i would do the following:

Add two more Tables.

Product_Instance

instanceID | prodID | price
1          | 1      | 13

Product_Instance_Options

instanceID | ovID
1          | 1
1          | 3
1          | 6

In this way you could define all possible combinations and prices for them. Might be a hell of a lot work to set up all the prices, but if you cant calculate them (like glass = +2$, small=2$ / big=4$) you will have this however you do it.