How are product attributes and attribute options stored in Magento database?

Question

I am trying to figure out how the linkage between attribute and attribute options, and product and attributes are made in Magento. Is there any reference to how this is work

Answer 1

I've found these queries to be very helpful for hunting down things like - where does it say the product color is black?, for example.

-- show_product_attr.sql
select
   p.entity_id,
   p.entity_type_id,
   p.attribute_set_id,
   p.type_id,
   p.sku,
   a.attribute_id,
   a.frontend_label as attribute,
   av.value
from
   catalog_product_entity p
   left join catalog_product_entity_{datatype} av on
      p.entity_id = av.entity_id
   left join eav_attribute a on
      av.attribute_id = a.attribute_id
where
   -- p.entity_id = 28683
   -- p.sku = '0452MR'
   p.entity_id = {eid}
;

And for attr_options

-- show_product_attr_options.sql
select
   p.entity_id,
   -- p.entity_type_id,
   -- p.attribute_set_id,
   p.type_id,
   p.sku,
   a.attribute_id,
   a.frontend_label as attribute,
   -- a.attribute_code,
   av.value,
   ao.*
from
   catalog_product_entity p

   left join catalog_product_entity_int av on
      p.entity_id = av.entity_id

   left join eav_attribute a on
      av.attribute_id = a.attribute_id
   left join eav_attribute_option_value ao on
      av.value = ao.option_id 
where
   -- p.entity_id = 28683
   p.entity_id = {eid}
;

You need to replace {datatype} with text, varchar, int, decimal, etc, for the first query, and {eid} with entity_id for both queries. Which you can do on the command like like this:

$ cat show_product_attr_options.sql | sed -e "s/{eid}/30445/" | mysql -uUSER -pPASS DATABASE -t
+-----------+---------+--------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------+----------+-----------+----------+--------------------+-------------+
| entity_id | type_id | sku          | attribute_id | attribute                 | value | value_id | option_id | store_id | value              | colorswatch |
+-----------+---------+--------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------+----------+-----------+----------+--------------------+-------------+
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |           96 | Status                    |     1 |     5972 |         1 |        0 | Male               | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          102 | Visibility                |     1 |     5972 |         1 |        0 | Male               | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          122 | Tax Class                 |     2 |     5973 |         2 |        0 | Female             | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          217 | Size                      |   257 |    17655 |       257 |        0 | XS                 | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          217 | Size                      |   257 |    17657 |       257 |        1 | XS                 | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          224 | Color                     |   609 |    18717 |       609 |        0 | Arctic Ice Heather | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          260 | Featured                  |     0 |     NULL |      NULL |     NULL | NULL               | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          262 | Clearance Product         |     0 |     NULL |      NULL |     NULL | NULL               | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          263 | Skip from Being Submitted |     0 |     NULL |      NULL |     NULL | NULL               | NULL        |
|     30445 | simple  | 840001179127 |          283 | Discontinued              |     0 |     NULL |      NULL |     NULL | NULL               | NULL        |
+-----------+---------+--------------+--------------+---------------------------+-------+----------+-----------+----------+--------------------+-------------+

A similar set of sql scripts can be created for catalog.