Reply To: How do I represent this data?!

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Can questions ever belong in more than one set?

If not, you can add a set column in the question table – no need for another intersection table.

if SetID = 1 and the order of answers are, “ringo, blue, yes, no” go to set 2 if SetID = 1 and the order of answers are, “John, green, no, no” go to set 3 if SetID = 1 defaults go to set 5

hmm… it’s not exactly normalized, but you could use the answers as the pattern:

question_map
+---------+--------------+
| answers | question_set |
+=========+==============+
| 6,2,T,F | 2            |
+---------+--------------+
| 4,1,F,F | 3            |
+---------+--------------+

The query would be a little complex, though, since you would have to either allow for missing characters (while still selecting the “best” match) or explicitly provide a default option in your query:

SELECT id,q
  FROM question
  WHERE set IN(
    COALESCE( 
      (SELECT question_set 
        FROM question_map
        WHERE answers = '6,2,T,F')
     ,5  -- this is the "default" question set
    )
  )
;