数据库中单列的多个值？

Question

I have an idea where a user can upload a maximum of 5 images for his or her gallery and can select one of them as his or her profile pic. Is it possible to save the names of all 5 pics in a single column, say, image? Or do I have to make 5 separate columns for storing these file names?

As an example, I could create a column called images and store values in this manner:

{"129cc68678d1e67d18d49d93cec040ce":{"filename":"129cc68678d1e67d18d49d93cec040ce.jpg"},"97ac1e22ea3fd6f02362233d8147ecb5":{"filename":"97ac1e22ea3fd6f02362233d8147ecb5.jpg","primary":true},"eeb239b4edff7e1a09246d38977a5646":{"filename":"eeb239b4edff7e1a09246d38977a5646.jpg"},"55a3810c1b0eaee039c753c12dccbc38":{"filename":"55a3810c1b0eaee039c753c12dccbc38.jpg"}}

Primary:true implies that it's a featured image/ profile picture.

Answer 1

Both of your proposals --- 5 pieces of information in one column and 5 columns --- are bad ideas. What if you ever want to change the limit to 4, or 6, or 20?

Normalize your data instead. Create a table for the images and another for the user-image relationships. In that second table, set a flag for the profile picture.