Effective way to store user selections in MySQL using PHP?

I'm having trouble figuring out the best way to store what information my users want to see. I apologize for not being able to find an easy way to explain my problem, but here goes (the fruits are for example's sake):

Let's say my users have an option to keep track of the following fruits in their fridge开发者_开发技巧:

Apples, Oranges, Grapes, Pears

The database is already setup with a table called 'fruits', where Apples is id_fruit=1, Oranges is id_fruit=2, etc.

Like I said all users have the OPTION to keep track of these fruits, however... I currently can not figure out an easy way to store the users selection of WHICH fruits they want to track. If user 1 doesn't like Apples, he can just go into his settings, uncheck Apples and no longer have Apples show up in his dashboard.

The only way I can think to store this information is to create a table that contains for fields user_id, apples, orange, grapes, pears. And then storing the user_id and Yes/No or 0/1 for the fruits.

This causes major grief if I ever want to add more fruits, or whatever.

What is the best way to store this information in MySQL, using PHP. And how would I retrieve that info.

User logs in, check the DB for which fruits he wants to see, and display only those fruits he has chosen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

---

This is a classic has-and-belongs-to-many, or simply many-to-many, relationship.

Table `users`
=============
id
name
...

Table `fruits`
==============
id
name
...

Table `users_fruits`
====================
id
user_id
fruit_id

In users_fruits you store one row per user-fruit relationship: (user_id: 42, fruit_id: 3).

---

Create a table tracking the actual relation.

You have one user table, with user id's. You have one fruit table, with fruit id's.

Create a table with user-fruit-relations. Let it have three colums, id, user_id and fruit_id.

If user 1 tracks fruits 2,3 and 5, insert those three rows in the table. That is, three rows with user_id = 1 and the different fruit_id's for each row.