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  • Columns: one for each lineage level, refers to all the parents up to the root, levels down frombelow the itemscurrent items' level are set to NULL
  • Limit to how deep the hierarchy can be
  • Cheap ancestors, descendants, level
  • Cheap insert, delete, move of the leaves
  • Expensive insert, delete, move of the internal nodes

Here follows an example - taxonomic tree of birds so the hierarchy is Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species - species is the lowest level, 1 row = 1 taxon (which corresponds to species in the case of the leaf nodes):

  • Columns: one for each lineage level, refers to all the parents up to the root, levels down from the items level are set to NULL
  • Limit to how deep the hierarchy can be
  • Cheap ancestors, descendants, level
  • Cheap insert, delete, move of the leaves
  • Expensive insert, delete, move of the internal nodes

Here follows an example - taxonomic tree of birds so the hierarchy is Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species - species is the lowest level, 1 row = 1 species:

  • Columns: one for each lineage level, refers to all the parents up to the root, levels below the current items' level are set to NULL
  • Limit to how deep the hierarchy can be
  • Cheap ancestors, descendants, level
  • Cheap insert, delete, move of the leaves
  • Expensive insert, delete, move of the internal nodes

Here follows an example - taxonomic tree of birds so the hierarchy is Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species - species is the lowest level, 1 row = 1 taxon (which corresponds to species in the case of the leaf nodes):

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This design was not mentioned yet:

Multiple lineage columns

Though it has limitations, if you can bear them, it's very simple and very efficient. Features:

  • Columns: one for each lineage level, refers to all the parents up to the root, levels down from the items level are set to NULL
  • Limit to how deep the hierarchy can be
  • Cheap ancestors, descendants, level
  • Cheap insert, delete, move of the leaves
  • Expensive insert, delete, move of the internal nodes

Here follows an example - taxonomic tree of birds so the hierarchy is Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species - species is the lowest level, 1 row = 1 species:

CREATE TABLE `taxons` (
  `TaxonId` smallint(6) NOT NULL default '0',
  `ClassId` smallint(6) default NULL,
  `OrderId` smallint(6) default NULL,
  `FamilyId` smallint(6) default NULL,
  `GenusId` smallint(6) default NULL,
  `Name` varchar(150) NOT NULL default ''
);

and the example of the data:

+---------+---------+---------+----------+---------+-------------------------------+
| TaxonId | ClassId | OrderId | FamilyId | GenusId | Name                          |
+---------+---------+---------+----------+---------+-------------------------------+
|     254 |       0 |       0 |        0 |       0 | Aves                          |
|     255 |     254 |       0 |        0 |       0 | Gaviiformes                   |
|     256 |     254 |     255 |        0 |       0 | Gaviidae                      |
|     257 |     254 |     255 |      256 |       0 | Gavia                         |
|     258 |     254 |     255 |      256 |     257 | Gavia stellata                |
|     259 |     254 |     255 |      256 |     257 | Gavia arctica                 |
|     260 |     254 |     255 |      256 |     257 | Gavia immer                   |
|     261 |     254 |     255 |      256 |     257 | Gavia adamsii                 |
|     262 |     254 |       0 |        0 |       0 | Podicipediformes              |
|     263 |     254 |     262 |        0 |       0 | Podicipedidae                 |
|     264 |     254 |     262 |      263 |       0 | Tachybaptus                   |

This is great because this way you accomplish all the needed operations in a very easy way, as long as the internal categories don't change their level in the tree.

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