Re: DB structure for logically similar objects in different states...

# eci(dot)souji(at)gmail(dot)com / 2006-05-28 16:13:20 -0400:
> Basically we've got several different "states" that an item can be in.
> From what I've seen the way many places seem to deal with them is
> something along the lines of making bool values that act as
> switches...
>
> Ex:
> table items:
> item_id
> name
> description
> is_active
> is_sold_out
> is_banned
>
> Now we've started to see some problems with this sort of design.
> Namely we need to run sanity tests on every page that hits the items
> table to make sure is_active is true, is_sold_out is false, is_banned
> is false so on and so forth. I was thinking of splitting up states
> into different tables ala...
>
> table items_active:
> item_active_id
> name
> description
>
> table items_sold_out:
> item_sold_out_id
> name
> description

would views help?

CREATE VIEW items_to_sell AS
SELECT item_id, name, description
FROM items
WHERE is_active = 1 AND is_sold_out = 0 AND is_banned = 0;

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