Question

I’m designing a database with three tables: user, game and (probably) register. I want to represent that a user can be registered on zero or more games.

I use table register to register a user in a game.

I also need to store the score of the user in a game.

My question is:

Can I add a column called score in table register? Is it a good design?

Thanks.

Answer 1

What you’re describing is a many-to-many relationship, using REGISTER as the cross-reference table:

USER
UserID

GAME
GameID

REGISTER
UserID
GameID
Score
[+ registration info]

Sounds okay, though if either game-related or registration-related info gets more complicated you’ll probably split it in two eventually.

Edited to add: Often you’ll end up wanting to save game history (“average score”, “last 5 games”, “fastest time”, etcetera). Then you have a one-to-many relationship between REGISTER and a GAME_HISTORY table.

Also, I agree with the answer that said calling it a ‘registration’ table will be confusing if it contains non-registration info.