IS this redundent data? - mysql

Question

I think I know the answer but I am not confident enough yet to just go with it.
I am thinking i have redundant info that can be fixed by just making a table for the the description . Below in my monster inserts i have 'mdesc' it has the same data that is in the dialogue inserts i just have it as 'intro'. Should i make a monster description table to hold a mdescid and and description? something like this
CREATE TABLE `mdesc`(
`mdescid` int(15) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
`monsterdesc` varchar(50) NOT NULL
);
SO then i could just put the mdescid in both my dialogue table and the monsters table and get rid of the intro insert
--monster inserts
INSERT INTO monster(monsterid,monstername,monsterloc,mdesc,weaponval)values(1,dragon,11,'a dragon',1);
INSERT INTO monster(monsterid,monstername,monsterloc,mdesc,weaponval)values(2,spider,8,'a poisonus spider',2);
INSERT INTO monster(monsterid,monstername,monsterloc,mdesc,weaponval)values(3,wasps,7,'a swarm of wasps',3);
INSERT INTO monster(monsterid,monstername,monsterloc,mdesc,weaponval)values(4,enchantress,13,'a seductive enchantress',4);
INSERT INTO monster(monsterid,monstername,monsterloc,mdesc,weaponval)values(5,bellyfish,5,'a slimy belly fish',5);
-- dialogue inserts
INSERT INTO dialogue(monsterid,intro,attack,outcome1,outcome2,outcome3)
values(1,'"a dragon."','"you fight and,"','" kill it with your sword!"','"it kills and eats you."','" you both run away!"');

Answer 1

There's no reason to spread the info for one monster over three tables. That's called a one-to-one relationship, one row of a table relates to only row of another table, and vice versa. It's rarely useful.
What you could do is change dialogue to have the monster, situation, and text.
create table monster_dialogues (
monster_id integer not null
foreign key(monster_id) references monsters(id)
situation varchar(255) not null,
dialogue varchar(255) not null
unique(monster_id, situation)
)
This is a one-to-many relationship, each monster has many dialogues. This avoids having to add a new column every time you have a new situation.
And instead of reproducing the same basic text over and over, have a default in your code.
-- Note, avoid including formatting like quotes and conjunctions in your data.
-- It restricts how the data can be used.
-- Leave the formatting of dialogue into sentences to the application.
select coalesce(dialogue, 'you fight')
from monster_dialogues
where monster_id = ?
and situation = 'attack'
Note that using a database for this is probably overkill. Unless there's a very large number of monsters or you need to search through a large number of dialogues a simple JSON file would do.
{
"dragon": {
"damage": 100,
"health": 200,
"dialogues": {
"attack": "you fight",
}
}
}