title: Database design for user settings
body: <p>Which of the following options, if any, is considered best practice when designing a table used to store user settings? </p>
  
  <p>(OPTION 1)</p>
  
  <pre><code>USER_SETTINGS
  -Id
  -Code (example "Email_LimitMax")
  -Value (example "5")
  -UserId
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(OPTION 2) </p>
  
  <p>create a new table for each setting where, for example, notification settings would require you to create:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"USER_ALERT_SETTINGS"
  -Id
  -UserId
  -EmailAdded (i.e true)
  -EmailRemoved 
  -PasswordChanged
  ...
  ...
  
  "USER_EMAIL_SETTINGS"
  -Id
  -UserId
  -EmailLimitMax
  ....
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(OPTION 3)</p>
  
  <pre><code>"USER"
  -Name
  ...
  -ConfigXML
  </code></pre>