from database or file?

[Anon]

I'm pondering between putting some variables in a database or put them in a file and then just include/require (whichever one it is, I can't recall right now) to let those variables be on that page.

Which would be the most efficient or fastest?

For example, I have users sign up and can customize features. For everything they customize, i have a list of variables and what they're set to in a separate file created for each user or should I just put the variables in a database table)?

I'll retrieve the variables from the file or database and then based on what each variable is set to, execute different parts of the PHP code.

I'm not using cookies b/c this has to work on more than 1 comp if the user is moving around.

[Anon]

Also, I'm using the database for other things within the site that will probably be used a lot.

[Anon]

I would definitely recommend using the database to store this information istead of flat files. The database will provide a much more scalable solution than either having thousands of files sitting around for each user or having one huge file that you have to load into memory over and over again.

For a good example of the flexibility of such as system, check out how the authors of Keystone (http://www.stonekeep.com/) store user preferences in a database.