Is there a specific name for this kind of table?

Question

I have a listings table that includes an ID and several other fields.

I have a media table that includes an ID and several other fields.

I have a listing_media table that includes its ID, and ID of a listing entry and an ID of a media entry. This gives me many to many relationships between the media and the listings.

                ---------------
----------      |listing_media|
|listing |      ---------------      ----------
----------      | id          |      | media  |
| id     |<-----| listing_id  |      ----------      
| others |      | media_id    |----->| id     |
----------      ---------------      | others |
                                     ----------

My questions:

First, is this the best way to allow for a many to many relationship in MySQL?
Second, Is there a specific name for the type of table that listing_media represents?

Thanks,

Mike

In this case I have many media files that are being saved and those files can be associated with many different listings. If I don't use many-to-many then how would I represent that without data duplication? — Intervalia, Apr 20 '20 at 00:25

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 20 '20 at 00:43

4

It is generrally called an associative entity, but also goes by these names (listed alphabetically):

association table
bridge table
cross-reference table
crosswalk
intermediary table
intersection table
join table
junction table
link table
linking table
many-to-many resolver
map table
mapping table
pairing table
pivot table
transition table

Non-key data stored in these tables (if any) is usually described as associative data.

answered Apr 20 '20 at 00:43

Bohemian

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Vey comprehensive list. I didn't know there were so many names in literature about them. – The Impaler Apr 20 '20 at 03:04

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 20 '20 at 00:21

3

listing_media is often referred to as an association table or junction table (and there are no doubt other names as well).

This is the correct way to represent a many-to-many relationship in a relational database.

answered Apr 20 '20 at 00:21

Gordon Linoff

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Is there a specific name for this kind of table?

2 Answers2