ID for tags in tag systems

Question

I'm implementing a tag system similar to StackOverflow tag system. I was thinking about when storing the tags and relating to a question, that relationship will be directly with the tag name or it's better create a field tagID to "link" the question with the tag? Looks that linking directly to tag name is easier, but it doesn't look good, mainly why when working with statistics and/or tag categorization (IMHO) can be hard to manage this. Another problem is when one admin decides "fix" a tag name. If there isn't a tagID separated from tag name, then I will be changing the key of the table...

What's your thoughts?

Thanks for all replies. I will delete this post since there is another posts with the same subject. I wonder why the search and the suggestion doesn't show it results for me...

Answer 1

Have a look at these related earlier SO questions:

• What is the most efficient way to store tags in a database

• Database design for tagging

• How to design a database schema to support tagging with categories

• Is there an ideal schema for tagging?