Using Hierarchical Data in MySQL, Trees vs Nests

Relational databases are often considered to be less than optimal when dealing with hierarchical data, including family trees, organizational charts, categories with sub categories and more. The two basic methods use the adjacent list model, and the nested set model. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I hope to show the strengths of each model with a few simple examples, along with some of the variations of the models.

You can download a zip file of the mysql_tree Slides, and just open the index.html file inside with a browser.