All in the one table OR not...

Hi, i am developing a site at the moment and i need to work on the Notification Settings for my members.

I have 'members' table in my database that contains info such as:

- id
- first name
- last name
- gender
- dob
- location
- email
etc...

I have on average 10 different notification and email settings that each user can customise, such as:

[ ] email me when i am sent a new private message

Should i expand the 'members' table and add the 10 notification settings or should i create a separate 'notifications' table that will hold all of the notification settings and link it to the 'members' table with a foreign key, thanks in advance for you help...

 

Complying with the standards of a relational database model you would create a separate Table to hold all the notification information. Especially if there will be more than a few columns.

In all of my projects I use a separate Table. Then a JOIN statement when fetching the data. It's easy and keeps things neat.

 

007ml:
you should definitely create a separate table for the notifications. Everything will be easier later if you would like to do any changed on itregards

 

use a separate table! agree 100% -

 

Thanks all... appreciate your feedback