Question

I have to add a coupon table to my db. There are 3 types of coupons : percentage, amount or 2 for 1.

So far I’ve come up with a coupon table that contains these 3 fields. If there’s a percentage value not set to null then it’s this kind of coupon.

I feel it’s not the proper way to do it. Should I create a CouponType table and how would you see it? Where would you store these values?

Any help or cue appreciated!

Thanks,

Teebot

Answer 1

You’re correct, I think a CouponType table would be fit for your problem.

Two tables: Coupons and CouponTypes. Store the CouponTypeId inside the Coupons table.

So for an example, you’ll have a Coupon record called ‘50% off’, if would reference the percent off CouponType record and from there you could determine the logic to take 50% off the cost of the item.

So now you can create unlimited coupons, if it’s a dollar amount coupon type it will take the ‘amount’ column and treat it as a dollar amount. If it’s a percent off it will treat it as a percentage and if it’s an ‘x for 1’ deal, it will treat the value as x.

- Table Coupons   - ID   - name   - coupon_type_id # (or whatever fits your style guidelines)   - amount # Example: 10.00 (treated as $10 off for amount type, treated as              # 10% for percent type or 10 for 1 with the final type)    - expiration_date  - Table CouponTypes   - ID   - type # (amount, percent, <whatever you decided to call the 2 for 1> :))