Entity Attribute Value Database vs. strict Relational Model Ecommerce

Question

It is safe to say that the EAV/CR database model is bad. That said,

Question: What database model, technique, or pattern should be used to deal with \"clas

Answer 1

It is safe to say that the EAV/CR database model is bad.

No, it's not. It's just that they're an inefficient usage of relational databases. A purely key/value store works great with this model.

Now, to your real question: How to store various attributes and keep them searchable?

Just use EAV. In your case it would be a single extra table. index it on both attribute name and value, most RDBMs would use prefix-compression to on the attribute name repetitions, making it really fast and compact.

EAV/CR gets ugly when you use it to replace 'real' fields. As with every tool, overusing it is 'bad', and gives it a bad image.