Create Categories for different sections

[Lykos22]

Lets take for example the following tables

Posts-------------------------postID (pk)titlecategoryID (fk)etc etcProducts-----------------------productID (pk)namecategoryID (fk)etc etcFaqs---------------------faqID (pk)questioncategoryID (fk)etc etc

All 3 tables contain a field categoryID, so basicle each post, product, question etc belong to a specific category. I'd like to know which is the best way to create my categories.

 

1. Create n-different category tables each time, such as posts_categories, products_categories, faq_categories etc etc, so basicly there all will be indipendent.

 

2. Create a single table for all categories with the following fields

Categories--------------------categoryIDcategorytype * // values (probably set as ENUM type - from a dropdown menu): posts, products, faqs etc etc 

Example

[table=width: 500][tr] [td]categoryID[/td] [td]category[/td] [td]type[/td][/tr][tr] [td]1[/td] [td]Science[/td] [td]posts[/td][/tr][tr] [td]2[/td] [td]Shirts[/td] [td]products[/td][/tr][tr] [td]3[/td] [td]Design[/td] [td]faqs[/td][/tr][/table]Which do you believe is the best way to organize my categories ???

[niche]

I'd do it flexibly. You're bound to change it as you develop your scripts.

[Lykos22]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I'd do it flexibly. You're bound to change it as you develop your scripts.

What do you mean? 1st way?

[niche]

What ever you decide, you're bound to change, so don't spend too much time deciding. Your first thought is probably good enough to get started.

[justsomeguy]

The second one will be more flexible. If you can change your application without changing the database structure then the design is more flexible.