Database question about simple Categories & Subcategories. Laravel 11

Question

I want to have Categories with related Subcategories, It must looks like this:

Category: Broth

Subcategory: Chicken broth, Meat broth, Vegetable broth

And I'll create create_categories_table & create_subcategories_table with category_id

I saw some examples with approach that uses: parent_id and child_id but I don't understand that logic, maybe it is required for multiple subcategories?

Could you give me some advices for such scenario?

Answer 1

You're on the right track! For your use case — categories with related subcategories — using a categories and subcategories table (with category_id) is perfectly fine and easier to understand than using parent_id/child_id.

The parent_id approach is used when both categories and subcategories are stored in the same table, allowing unlimited levels (e.g., category → subcategory → sub-subcategory).

But for simple two-level hierarchies like:

• Broth

  • Chicken broth

  • Meat broth

Using two separate tables (categories, subcategories) is better and easier to manage.