Question

I want to implement a badge modification to my website, i figured that I would have one new column in my mysql database to store number variables in them, and then i can display badges based on what number is in the mysql column for each user, should i use the SET field type to accomplish this?

Answer 1

I would suggest you create two tables:

1. badges, containing the details of each badge;
2. userbadges, containing a pair of foreign keys – that of a user and that of a badge owned by that user.

This has the advantage over SET of enabling you to add/delete/change badges without altering your schema and also to reference badges from other tables with minimum duplication.