在数据库中存储HTML表的数据

Question

I'm developing an application using PHP / SQL Server that needs to store information on graduates from tons of different academic programs, along with information on how many were employed after graduating... This will then be queried by users, who will want to compare one program to another, so they will need to be able to generate custom tables showing the outcomes for students. Tables will be something like this:

Program            Salary after 1 Year      Salary after 2 Years         Etc...
Engineering        Lots                     Even more!
Philosophy         Nothing                  Are you kidding me?

So, here's the question: should I store individual values for these data points in the database, or should I just store the raw HTML for the table row?

In other words, do I store this:

ProgramID    Salary1    Salary2               Etc...
1            Lots       Even More!
2            Nothing    Are you kidding me?

Or do I store this:

ProgramID   RowHTML
1           <td>Lots</td><td>Even More!</td>...
2           <td>Nothing</td><td>Are you kidding me?</td>

I can see arguments for both approaches... my gut tells me that storing the raw HTML will be faster - it will eliminate GOBS of PHP processing. But I'm open to other interpretations.

Answer 1

I would store the raw data only. this will provide the ability to change the format/layout of the page when your boss says "Make it look newer" or whatever. If you store the table data, you are stuck.