How to Split Keywords for Database Optimization: An Efficient PHP and MySQL Approach?

Split Keywords for Database Optimization: An Efficient PHP and MySQL Approach

Normalizing data is crucial for efficient database performance. When storing multiple keywords associated with a post, a common approach is to store them as a comma-separated string in a single column. However, this approach can lead to inefficiencies when searching or retrieving data by keyword.

Solution: Splitting Keywords into Relational Tables

To address this challenge, a better solution is to split the keywords into relational tables. This allows for easy lookup of keywords and association with specific posts. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Create three tables: 'post_tags' to store post IDs and comma-separated tags, 'keywords' to store unique keywords, and 'post_keywords' to associate posts with keywords.
2. Create a stored procedure ('normalise_post_tags') to process the 'post_tags' table and insert keywords into the 'keywords' table if they don't already exist. It then inserts the association between post IDs and keywords into the 'post_keywords' table.
3. Initialize the procedure: Declare necessary variables and a cursor to iterate over the 'post_tags' table.
4. Loop through the post_tags and split keywords: Use substring and looping to extract individual keywords.
5. Insert keywords into the keywords table: Insert non-existent keywords while ignoring any duplicates.
6. Retrieve the keyword IDs: Select the keyword ID for the inserted keyword.
7. Create associations between posts and keywords: Insert the post ID and keyword ID into the 'post_keywords' table.
8. Run the stored procedure: Call the 'normalise_post_tags' stored procedure to execute the keyword normalization process on the 'post_tags' table.

Performance Benefits

This approach offers significant performance improvements when querying data by keyword. Instead of searching a comma-separated string, queries can directly access the 'post_keywords' table, ensuring faster and more efficient results.

Conclusion

Splitting keywords into relational tables using the provided MySQL stored procedure is an effective solution for optimizing database performance when storing and retrieving data associated with multiple keywords. It enhances query efficiency and provides a clear mapping between posts and their associated keywords, reducing storage space and improving search speeds.

The above is the detailed content of How to Split Keywords for Database Optimization: An Efficient PHP and MySQL Approach?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!