I have this program that needs to be written and most if not all of it is done, everything except the database queries.
The tables are set up like this:
Table 1 Table 2(compares data) Table 3
info|info| id|name|directory|status info|info
It is not important to worry about table 1 and 3, so Table 2 compares data and spits info out. The problem is this, the "name" field is going to be duplicated within this table as well as the "directory" field. Because the point is to find out if "name" has been assigned to "directory" and of course there will be different names assigned to the same directory. The status indicates how far the process of being submitted to the directory has gone. So say a "name" is submitted to a "directory" that field with the name and directory would be marked as pending, once the directory owner lists the "name" it is marked complete. So thats fine, but theres going to be another directory in the same table that "name" needs to be listed under for the same process. There is also going to be the same directory with a different name. So the point is that theres going to be a lot of duplicate data. And whether it was all in different tables and joined together does not make a difference for the main problem which is this:
if I want to access the data, specifically if i select a "name" and ask which "directories" has "name" not been submitted in it will spit out everything that name is not listed next to. Problem is that even though name might not be listed next one directory, the actual submition of name to that directory could be lower down in the db. So it gives me the wrong info. If I use a distinct it gives me the same problem where the distinct is not finding the correct information because it cant check every field for a "name". So if anyone with a good knowledge of dbs can help it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks!
If there was some way to DISTINCT the result that might work, but honestly my knowledge stops here with mysql. I am willing to entertain any ideas even changing the DB around.
