Database Types and Creating a List from them

phpdoodler

Hi,

I have a field in my database called additional features. It's really just a list of features for a product separated by commas. How do I convert this list separated by commas into an actual list on my web page?

bradgrafelman

phpdoodler wrote:
t's really just a list of features for a product separated by commas.

In other words, it's a single field that holds multiple items... or, more simply: your database design fails to meet even the first normal form.

phpdoodler wrote:
How do I convert this list separated by commas into an actual list on my web page?[/code]By reading up on database normalization and changing your database schema. 🙂

phpdoodler

Ok. Thought I posted this thread under newbies. Guess I was misdirected by the title.

You are correct. My field that I'm referring to is a single field that holds multiple items. Are you suggesting that I need a separate column for each additional item?

bradgrafelman

phpdoodler wrote:
Are you suggesting that I need a separate column for each additional item?

Not a separate column, no (that would also violate normalization techniques). I don't know what your database schema looks like, but it sounds like you could use a separate table with two columns - product_id (foreign key to a product in a 'products' table) and a feature_id column (foreign key to a feature in a 'features' table).

Perhaps you could show us some sample data so that we know more about what you're trying to achieve?