if I have a muli-dimensional array like that I take from a form submit:
$participants = array(
'participant1'=> array(
'name'=>'jim',
'age' => '15',
'grade' => '8th'),
'participant2'=> array(
'name'=>'tom',
'age' => '17',
'grade' => '9th'),
....
);
Is it better two store whole array into one db column named "Participants" or create a separate column in the row for each participant PERFORMANCE wise if i have a maximum number of participants?
using separate column would be better at the point of normalization also if you need only name or age than it would be better you dont need to fetch all