Database theory - relationship between two tables
- by iansinke
I have a database with two tables - let's call them Foo and Bar. Each foo may be related to any number of bars, and each bar may be related to any number of foos. I want to be able to retrieve, with one query, the foos that are associated with a certain bar, and the bars that are associated with a certain foo.
My question is, what is the best way of recording these relationships? Should I have a separate table with records of each relationship (e.g. two columns, foo and bar)? Should the foo table have a column for a list of bars, and vice versa? Is there another option that I'm overlooking?
I'm using SQL Server, if that makes a difference.