How would you set up a variable 2d array in a database? My problem visualizing the setup for this may be because I have quite a bit of experience with Microsoft Excel using "lookup" functions and I'm just starting out with databases. In excel you can have a table (x, y) with x columns and y rows. The number of columns (x) and rows (y) may vary from table to table. How would I set up something like this in a database? Do I need to create a separate table for every widget? There will be MANY widgets so creating a separate table seems cumbersome. Using an example table composed of WIDGETS. I want to be able to lookup the number of bolts each widget has. The number of bolts depends on x and y. The 2 widgets below would belong to the WIDGETS table, but you can see each widgets 2d array varies in size. The goal (for example) would be to lookup Widget 1, with a "y" value of 'B' and an "x" value of '5'. WIDGET #1 -------------A-----B-----C-----D 2 wheels----4-----8----10----16 5 wheels----8----10----10----18 8 wheels----9----10----10----n/a WIDGET #2 -------------A-----B-----C 2 wheels----3-----4-----5 4 wheels----5-----6-----7 6 wheels----7-----8-----9
TABLE "widgets" widget_id, widget_name TABLE "bolts" id, widget_id, x, y, number_of_bolts Using your example it would look like this: [b]widget_id[/b] [b]widget_name[/b] 1 widget #1 2 widget #2 [b]id[/b] [b]widget_id[/b] [b]x[/b] [b]y[/b] [b]number_of_bolts[/b] 1 1 2 A 4 2 1 2 B 8 3 1 2 C 10 ... Code (markup): "SELECT number_of_bolts FROM bolts WHERE widget_id = 1 AND y = 'B' AND x = 5"