Re: Design Issue

[Preston McMurry]

Pretty much, yeah.

Each table contains only data which describes the thing the table represents.

CHARACTER
pk: char_id (I always use a mnemonic name to avoid confusion between two fields, in different tables, with the same name)
-other fields-

ITEM
pk: item_id
-other fields-

Since a character may have many items, and an item may potentially have many characters (unless it is an artifact ;-), you need a joining table:

CHARACTER_ITEM
fk: char_id
fk: item_id

Which would contain one record for each item that each character posesses. The two keys, taken together, are usually unique. If a character may posess multiple instances of the same item, then you could either have one record for each instance, or add a quantity field.

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