Many to Many relationship using SQL and Linq (entity framework/to entities)

Question

I have two tables:

- Attendees
- Events

Normally, I would create a mapping table 'EventAttendeeMap' to link these tables into a many to many relationship.

Is this the best way of doing so? Should I store the list of AttendeeIds in an xml column instead on the Events table?

I am using .NET 3.5/4 with Linq as the DAL (although I think this is irrelevant to the design question being asked, possibly).

Interested to see what people's opinions are.

Thanks. Dave

Answer 1

A mapping table is definitely the best way to do it - the Entity Framework will convert the mapping table into a collection of entities on both sides and the table itself will essentially disappear.

Answer 2

In short yes - create a mapping table to hold the event id and the attendee id.

There is a good question here that might be of interest to you.