Best way to store multiple timestamps & numbers? - mysql

Question

I'm having trouble describing what I want so I'll try to illustrate it the best I can with arrays.
Array
(
[user1] => Array(
[title] => customtitle1
[prefix] => false
[worlds] => Array(
[119] => 367
[2] => 5
)
[time] => Array (
100
101
102
204
)
[last] => 119
)
[user2] => Array(
[title] => customtitle2
[prefix] => true
[worlds] => Array(
[119] => 367
[2] => 5
)
[time] => Array (
100
101
102
204
)
[last] => 119
)
)
I stored this in txt files but I moved on to SQL databases. How would I store this?
I only display 2 users here but it is more, the "worlds" array gets new values overtime (including new keys, so the length will change). Same goes for the "time" array, but only values.
username | title | prefix |
user1 | bla | true |
user2 | bl2 | false |
I don't know how I would go on implementing the worlds & time arrays. I would like to be able to sort these too.

Answer 1

Keep entities separate is one goal of good data modeling. Use one table to store one type of information, and another table to store another type, and relate them using foreign keys or join tables. Per your example, you might want a structure like this.
users:
| id | username | title | prefix | last_world |
| 1 | user1 | bla | true | 119 |
| 2 | user2 | bl2 | false | 119 |
worlds:
| user_id | worlds_id | other_id |
| 1 | 119 | 367 |
| 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | 119 | 367 |
| 2 | 2 | 5 |
time:
| user_id | time |
| 1 | 100 |
| 1 | 101 |
| 1 | 102 |
| 1 | 204 |
| 2 | 100 |
| 2 | 101 |
| 2 | 102 |
| 2 | 204 |
These tables can be joined with a query like this:
SELECT
u.*,
w.worlds_id,
w.other_id,
t.time
FROM users u
INNER JOIN worlds w
ON u.id = w.user_id
INNER JOIN time t
ON u.id = t.user_id
Constructing your database schema so that data is never redundant (e.g. you update a username one and only one place) and data is never incorrect in one place but correct in another is called database normalization.
Good luck!