Home/ Questions/Q 6602245
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-25T18:51:13+00:00

I’m creating an auction style website where users can bid for items. I’ve into

  • 0

I’m creating an auction style website where users can bid for items. I’ve into a bit of confusion regarding the database design when it comes down to projects and bidding features. Initially I thought a table called ‘project’ could contain a multiple-valued column called ‘bids’ containing bid_id’s.. However after a bit of research it appears this method is a no-no.. But I’m sure I can remember a lecture or two from university that mentioned multi-valued columns in database designs. What would be the best approach for the problem?

Thanks

Dan

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It depends on your requirements on how to design the database. If you have exactly one auction per product ID, a BID table may be enough. If each auction requires individual configurations you may end up with an AUCTION table as well:

    The product table

    PRODUCT
 PRODUCT_ID    -- primary key
 ....

    Auction table

    AUCTION
 AUCTION_ID    -- PK
 PRODUCT_ID    -- foreign key to PRODUCT
 START_TIME
 END_TIME
 MODE          -- e.g. dutch, english...
 ...

    Bid table

    BID
 BID_ID        -- PK
 AUCTION_ID    -- foreign key to AUCTION
 AMOUNT
 TIME
 ...

    In general, you should avoid multi-valued columns in a relational database model. You should aim for normalization. If it later comes to query optimization you may need to introduce further indexes, views and/or procedures.

    • 0