MySQL: three tables related to each other

Question

I am designing a database to store software testing data. The basic idea is the following: I want to store the information of each tested configuration, each tested software version and each found fault.

An example of a query I'd like to execute would be the following. I want to find all faults that were found on a specific configuration with a specific software.

My question is related to the table design, more specifically the relationships between them. Would this kind of design work in my case:

design

Or would it be better if the table "fault" was directly related to table "configuration"?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, yes, it would be better to link directly "fault" to "configuration" as configuration_id should be a foreign key of "configuration.configuration_id" (the primary key). But, if there is only one "configuration" for each "software", then, since you already referenced "software_id" into "fault" table, you don't need to add "configuration_id" into "fault" as it is already present into "software" table.

You will retrieve all your data by this query:

SELECT * FROM fault INNER JOIN software ON fault.software_id = software.software_id INNER JOIN configuration ON software.configuration_id = configuration.configuration_id

Then, just remove "configuration_id" from "fault" table.