Looking for Database Design Tips

Enrico_Ng

I am new to database design. (I've worked with a few existing ones)
Thanks for your tutorials, they have been very helpful.

I am still not 100% sure about when to create a new table.

For example, I have 5 different types of entries. They all need similar columns, "title", "description", "date", etc, etc

Is it better to have 5 seperate tables or put them all in one table and create a new column "type" to specify what type of entry it is.

Also, another example.
I would like to news articles on my database. I would like my website to beable to show the full text of a news article, and sometimes just important quotes from articles. I also would like the website visitor to beable to search for quotes. Or show only quotes for President Bush.

I figure it that since it is bad to repeat data, I should just store the articles, but then, how would I pull out quotes. Not every sentance can be thought of as a quote.

drawmack

if they all have the same information in the same types of columns then it is probably better to use a single table, it'll make coding a search function much easier, just stick an additional column in for type to differentiate between the five types.

Enrico_Ng

Originally posted by drawmack
if they all have the same information in the same types of columns then it is probably better to use a single table, it'll make coding a search function much easier, just stick an additional column in for type to differentiate between the five types.

ok. I was alittle concerned about that would affect the way I index my entries, but I am still having trouble understanding how that works.

leatherback

Hm..

I would not call Title, description and especially DATE similar!

I would NEVER put those in the same colum! /me: not reading..

Make one table, 5-... colums:

Enrico_Ng

Originally posted by leatherback
Hm..

I would not call Title, description and especially DATE similar!

I would NEVER put those in the same colum!

Make one table, 5-... colums:

Table: articles
ID | Title | Description | Date | Content | ***

J.

Yes, thats what I meant.
I mean I have 5 types of entries and each of the entries have those columns (and some more), so the entries have that similarity.

but anyways, I've been convinced that one table is the right way to go.

Now, the other question I had was how indexing works. I have read about the different types of indexes I can create, but am still confused about how and when to use them. Do you know of a nice guide or tutorial that explains this (other than the manual)?
I plan to do lots of full text searches.