Can I Store a Single Variable (not in a Table) In PHP/MySQL Database

Question

I have a database which stores a large amount of data in tables. This works fine, but I have a few individual variables that I need to store which are not "repeatable" in the sense that there will be no need for additional rows to store more copies of them.

I could just create a single table storing these miscellaneous variables and leave only a single row in that table, but that doesn't seem like the most efficient or cleanest option.

Is there a better approach (or ideally a way to store a single variable in MySQL)?

Answer 1

Just create a table e.g. called 'variables' with two fields 'name' and 'value'. Store your variables in this table, and there you go.