Store data in MySQL

I have a form to fill which has several input fileds and 20 checkbox My question is how to organize the records o开发者_JAVA百科f the selected checkbox in mysql and what is the best way to search for them with php. Can you give me an example?

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MySQL is a relational database, so why store all these strings?

What about something like this:

Assume your checkboxes are placed horizontally. So it´s rather intuitive to treat them like this in the database. Let´s say your forms is like:

1. What kind of food do you like (multiple answers possible) ?

   O Pizza O Pasta O Sushi O Salad

Assume someone likes everything but Sushi.Someone else might only like Sushi

So your results table in the database could look like:

id(PK)  user        question     col      answer
1       someone     1             1         1
2       someone     1             2         1
3       someone     1             3         0
4       someone     1             4         1
5       someoneelse 1             3         1

Where answer is some flag that is 1 when the box is checked and is 0 if not.

I am just guessing what you mean like everyone does, so maybe I can give a better answer, if you´d ask a little more precisely.

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You could use a single BIGINT field, letting each bit represent one of the property's characterizations.

Let's say you define the properties as follows

 1 = furnished (000001b)
 2 = with garage (000010b)
 4 = new construction (000100b)
 8 = ... (001000b)
16 = ..... (010000b)

So if the field's first bit is 1, that means the property is furnished, if the 3rd bit is 1, then it's a new construction, and so on.

You use the bitwise operators to check for each characterization, i.e.

SELECT * FROM property WHERE characterization & 2

will return the properties with garage. Similarly

SELECT * FROM property WHERE characterization & 5

will return properties that are new constructions and are also furnished (eh.. well, you get the idea :-) ).

Keep in mind that BIGINT is 64bits, so you can't have more than 64 different characterizations in the same field.

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If they are not in different groups but many options then you could store them in a string like that |option1:yes|option2:no|.... and you could easily query for different options like WHERE option LIKE '%|option1:yes|%', or something like that.