using a linked table

Hi,

I was wondering what Jason or someone else from WA support think about using a holding table in mysql for using to query instead of using long queries in database?

basically i have 25 product tables and all have similar columns but not identical that is why i sperated into seperate tables.

however i though of using a table called "products" and using this to hold the "refid" and "userid" and "clientid" all in the one table along with "date" & "commission" columns for simple data retrieval to use with data assist repeat tables and dynamic web charts.

would you recommend this?

many thanks

how about creating a view within your database using a union query.

if all of the columns you intend to use are identical, this is a good option

thanks CraigR, not really sure how to use views as just got my head around fk's recently.

when you say idenctical do you just mean the data type? or the actual column name?

as i have say 25 product tables, they are similar but not identical. for example they each have a "productid" field which may be "product1id", "product2id" and so on.

should i use a union then or use a linked table that has these values?

thanks for the advice.

in union queries, the data type must be the same.

if the field names are different, the query will use the field name of the first table, unless you give it an alias.

a view using union query is a better option than a temporary table, as the data will always be up to date.

i would tend to go for this approach unless you wanted to create a 'snapshot'


take a look at this link for some background...

sql_union.asp

if you want a bit of help on syntax, let me know.

thanks craigr