Storing multiple values in one MYSQL field - php

Question

I am currently planning out how a table will look in MYSQL database. I want to do something like the below, where plant1 and plant2 would be the columns, and then each of those plants would have characteristics assigned to them as you see below.
Is it possible to display info this way in MYSQL?
Array (
[plant1] => Array (
[image_url] => http://www.example.com/image1.png
[botanical_name] => Foo
[common_name] => Bar
),
[plant2] => Array (
[image_url] => http://www.example.com/image2.png
[botanical_name] => Foo
[common_name] => Bar
)

Answer 1

Well, i don't suggest that, but you can insert php array to that field and then parse it in php when you are getting data from database. So the content of that field would be like that:
$plant1 = array('plant1' => array('image_url' => 'http://www.example.com/image1.png', 'botanical_name' => 'Foo', 'common_name' => 'Bar'));
$plant2 = array('plant2' => array('image_url' => 'http://www.example.com/image2.png', 'botanical_name' => 'Foo', 'common_name' => 'Bar'));
You can insert $plant1 $plant2 to your mysql fields and then print it like this to get wanted result:
print_r(array_merge($mysql_plant1, $mysql_plant2));
Function array_merge connects arrays together.

Answer 2

You can do it storing as a serialized value (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php) but it's not a good idea.
For that you will have to create another table to store the caracteristics of each plant like:
**plants**
id_plant
name
**plants_ccharacteristics**
id_plant_characteristic
fk_plant
name
value
In that way you can store it properly.
As an extra point, that structure you want to store looks quite good for use NoSQL databases like MongoDB.

Answer 3

Your table design is flawed. What you should have is Plant being a row, with each item in the array being a column in the plants table.
If you need Plants to be a column in another table, then assign the first column of the plants table to be a unique, auto-incrementing key and then put that key in the column of the other table. Eg:
**Garden_Plants**
gp_key
gp_garden_id
gp_plant_id <-- p_id from Plants_Table
**Plants_Table**
p_id
p_botanical_name
p_common_name
p_image_url

Answer 4

you would have a table called plants, this would have a related table called plantDetails that has a referencing ID from the plant in question.
this would give 1 plant, with multiple references

Answer 5

This doesn't seem optimised for querying the database, however if you have a specific reason for doing it this way please let us know..
A more optimised solution:
Have a table called Plants, with fields ID, image_url, botanical_name, common_name.
Store all plants in that table. ID is a unique Identifier for that plant, probably set with autonumber so cannot be duplicated
If you need to store some kind of relationship between 2 plants, have a table called plant_relationships with fields for something like plant_ID_1 and plant_ID_2
You can then query your full list of plants directly, or query the relationships table to find plants related to other plants

Answer 6

If you want multiple values in one mysql field, i would suggest to put your information in one string before storing it in the database. Each substring need to be separated by a character that will not be used in the substrings.
$value1 = aaa
$value2 = bbb
$value3 = ccc
$valueAll = aaa:bbb:ccc
When you get the data out of the DB, you will need to split the string with the : or the other character selected.