MySQL table with multiple values in one field

Question

I'm building a database for a real estate company.

The real estate properties are managed by sales people using a CodeIgniter website.

How should I proceed with the database design for this table? Fields such as address, location, price etc., are pretty straightforward, however there are some sections like Kitchen Appliances, 'Property Usage' etc., where the sales people can check multiple values for each field.

Furthermore, a property can have multiple people attached to it from the table people, such as owner, seller, property lawyer, etc. Should I use one field for these people or create another table and normalize the bindings?

Is the best way to proceed just using one field and using serialized data or is there a better way for this?

Answer 1

You can keep one table for property and one master table for roles and them assign that role to a user in the user table and can keep one to many association between property and users by having separate table property_users