Re^2: best way to keep track of who's friends with whom

[leocharre]

beth, that's a interesting way you mention. (Sounds like a question of storage, not execution time handling.)

I think what Beth is suggesting deals with data normalization techniques- where you break down everything into the smallest most simple tables possible(?).

It makes it so the data is not duplicated, it makes your sql queries a little more complicated (a lot), but the whole thing works better.

Basically your friend people table:

person_id name
1   joe
2   leo
3   jimmy

And your friend table:

person_a_id person_b_id
1           2
1           3

This shows that joe is friends with leo and jimmy- but leo and jimmy are not friends.