4 ms·

What are the common use cases for this scenario?

• tyingq 10y ago
  Table prefixes? Running more than one instance of an application in a single database. You'll find it's supported in most php apps and frameworks. Wordpress, Drupal, Laravel, Magento, etc. Not just php either. Ruby/Rails Active Record, for example, supports it. And I imagine dynamic, variable bound table names are probably in every ORM in just about every language.
  • DCoder 10y ago
    Variable table names can also be useful if you have poor man's partitioning – separate tables with historical data , like "logs_201610", "logs_201611", "logs_201612", etc. Another scenario I just thought of: your schema is more or less dynamic. For example, Drupal lets developers/site administrators create entities with custom fields, each field gets its own DB table, and to load an entity you need to SELECT * FROM node LEFT OUTER JOIN field_data_field_name_1 ON .. LEFT OUTER JOIN field_data_field_name_2 ON .. ...