[thelist] SQL : performance - separate table vs. (datatype) SET

[Hassan Schroeder]

Let's say I have a DB with recipes, and I need to be able to find
items with certain ingredients.

So it seems like I could have

(1) a separate table of ingredients, with the recipe id as a key
      and pseudo-boolean values for each ingredient column -- like
      milk ENUM("false","true") -- and search with something like

	WHERE milk = "true" AND eggs = "true"

(2) an ingredients column using the SET datatype to include all
     ingredients -- ingredients SET("milk","butter","eggs") -- and
     search them via something like

	WHERE ingredients LIKE "%milk%eggs%"

Anyone have any thoughts on why one or the other would be preferable?
I'm in the process of learning how much I don't know about SQL :-)

I am aware of the 64-member limitation to SET and that's not an
issue in this instance.

Specifics: MySQL on Linux (for deployment)

TIA!
--
Hassan Schroeder ----------------------------- hassan at webtuitive.com
Webtuitive Design ===  (+1) 408-938-0567   === http://webtuitive.com

                            dream.  code.