Question

I’m pretty sure I already know the answer, but would like some confirmation…

We received 220 text files of providers. Each file is a different category of provider. In total there are 3.2 million records.

My inclination is to create a category table and a provider table that links to category by an ID, then index any other columns that may be searched on like state, or even last name.

The other option is to have one table per category, but I think other than the smaller row size there are a lot of disadvantages to this approach.

It’s a PHP/MySQL implementation.

Anyone think the separate table option is better for any reason?

Thanks,
D.

Answer 1

Go with two table approach — categories and providers.

This will enable you to

1. easily adding new categories
2. easily reverse search Categories based on a column such as state of provider.

It make sense from data-structure point of view as well. One type of data in one table.