array format in mysql table

[Anon]

Hi, i was just thinking about putting a rating system for tutorials on my site. Well, along with the other variables in my table, i want the rating. So, i figure i can use an array to count all the ratings and then divide by the number of numbers. OK... My question is: what is a good assignment for that variable when i create the table? Varchar? or what?

[Anon]

another thing... when i do varchar(32) with an expected array to fill that field in does each item in the array have to be less then 32 characters or does the whole array? example:
pizza,fish,shoes,dogs,house,speakers,radio,computer
would that be to long to add into a varchar(32) field?

[[deleted]]

In your case I would not bother with array's in tables.

Instead, create a new table called 'ratings'
and make it like

tutorial_id INT not null
rating INT not null
date_of_rating datetime not null

Then everytime someone submits a rating for a tutorial, you insert a new record
into this table and store the id of the tutorail that the rating is for, along with the rating itself and the date-time of the rating.

This way you can run a simple query to find the ratings for any tutorial. You can get the average (avg()) and you can get results over certain periods of time.
Quite nifty.