Question

The two tables here are :

user_table
–user_id (int)
–user_name (int)
–user_profile_link (varchar(max))
–user_joined_date (smalldatetime)
–user_thumbnail_pic (varbinary(MAX))

follower_table
–follow_id
–followed_user_id ( who i am following )
–following_user_id ( who i am )
–followed_mutual ( default : NO ) — to identify if both are following each other

is this approach correct ? or do i need something else to make this tick ! need some advice on this guys…thanks

Answer 1

I (personally) would create separate one-way relationships. If user 12 follows user 37 and it’s mutual, then follower_table will have two records

user   following
  12       37
  37       12

Also, I would go ahead and duplicate reverse relationships

user   followed_by
  37       12
  12       37

This makes queries easier, and also greatly simplifies sharding of data, should you ever need to split your data across multiple DB servers.