Example of relationship involving multiple entities

Question

I haven't found any examples of MYSQL many-to-many relationships here or in Google. What I'm looking for is a very simple example where php mysql displays results from a database. Can someone write a very simple example?

Answer 1

This is a simple and rough example of the SQL involved. I don't think it's necessary to confuse this concept with php. Just retrieve the collection like any other collection.

In this example, there are many names and many colors. People can have more than one favorite color, and many people can have the same favorite color. Hence many-to-many.

***** Tables **********

person
--------
id - int 
name - varchar

favColor
-------------
id - int 
color - varchar

person_color
------------
person_id - int (matches an id from person)
color_id - int (matches an id from favColor)



****** Sample Query ******

SELECT name, color 
FROM person 
    LEFT JOIN person_color ON (person.id=person_id)
    LEFT JOIN favColor ON (favColor.id=color_id)


****** Results From Sample Query *******

Name - Color
---------------
John - Blue
John - Red
Mary - Yellow
Timmy - Yellow
Suzie - Green
Suzie - Blue
etc...

Is this helpful?

Answer 2

Example scenario: Students and courses at a university. A given student may take multiple courses, and naturally, a course will often have many students.

Sample table, simple design:

CREATE TABLE `Student` (
    `StudentID` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `FirstName` VARCHAR(25),
    `LastName` VARCHAR(25) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`StudentID`)
) ENGINE=INNODB CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci

CREATE TABLE `Course` (
    `CourseID` SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `Code` VARCHAR(10) CHARACTER SET ascii COLLATE ascii_general_ci NOT NULL,
    `Name` VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`CourseID`)
) ENGINE=INNODB CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci

CREATE TABLE `CourseMembership` (
    `Student` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
    `Course` SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`Student`, `Course`),
    CONSTRAINT `Constr_CourseMembership_Student_fk`
        FOREIGN KEY `Student_fk` (`Student`) REFERENCES `Student` (`StudentID`)
        ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE,
    CONSTRAINT `Constr_CourseMembership_Course_fk`
        FOREIGN KEY `Course_fk` (`Course`) REFERENCES `Course` (`CourseID`)
        ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=INNODB CHARACTER SET ascii COLLATE ascii_general_ci

Find all students registered for a course:

SELECT
    `Student`.*
FROM
    `Student`
    JOIN `CourseMembership` ON `Student`.`StudentID` = `CourseMembership`.`Student`
WHERE
    `CourseMembership`.`Course` = 1234

Find all courses taken by a specified student:

SELECT
    `Course`.*
FROM
    `Course`
    JOIN `CourseMembership` ON `Course`.`CourseID` = `CourseMembership`.`Course`
WHERE
    `CourseMembership`.`Student` = 5678