Let's say I have a database-driven site where I want to ask for a set of information about a user, then re-present that information later. Part of the infomation comes from "multiple" select lists. For example the structure could look like: NAME|AGE|HOBBIES where hobbies could be any number of choices from this list: 
Perl Programming
Reloading PerlMonks
Retipping Shoelaces

[download]
So, what is the best way to index all of the choices from the list and insert it into the HOBBIES field in the database? Let's say I'm using a SQL database in this case.

What I would likely do is create a second table to contain the list data; for example: 

ID|DATA
1|Perl Programming
2|Reloading PerlMonks
3|Retipping Shoelaces

[download]
Then in the user table, I use join on the list to have a string to put into the user table like this: Anonymous Monk|89|1:2:3 Then in my perl code I use split to break up the HOBBIES field and then perhaps show its output by name using an array that I loaded from the database ahead of time, $hobbies[1], $hobbies[2], $hobbies[3] But that just seems so obvious and inelegant, it makes me wonder how the professional Monk might handle this situation. So, how do you like to handle this?

In reply to Indexing Sublists by httptech

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