I am trying to plan my table structure for a business directory where I will have multiple parent categories for multiple sub-categories and multiple business listings, all of which will require a many to many relationship.
eg.
A Night Out
Clubs and Societies
Public Houses
Restaurants
Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles
Theatres and Concert Halls
Wine Bars
Restaurants
Chinese / Oriental
Bistros
Fish and Chips
Indian
Italian
Public Houses
Seafood
Spanish
Transport and Carriers
Air Charter and Rental
Airlines
Car / Van Hire Self Drive
Courier and Distribution Services
Estate / Property Re-location Services
Freight Services and Agents
Haulage Contractors
Post Offices and Services
Re-location Services
Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles
Van Hire
As you can see, Restaurants is both a main category and a subcategory. Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles belongs to both Transport and Carriers and A Night Out and under all of these categories, on the lowest level, I will have the business listings. I will not be allowing businesses to submit their own listings but rather adding them myself upon request. A business listing can belong to a maximum of 6 categories.
I am struggling to find the best structure of tables for my database and would be very grateful for any suggestions. I am relatively new to php/mySQL.