Setting up the databases

I have created two databases here (they are both simple DBM files). One is a table of users. It contains a Unique ID number, the user's first name, followed by a list of 11 true or false values depending on whether the user likes that corresponding genre or not. Note that simple database management programs only allow one field per record, so my first name and 11 preferences are actually crammed into one large text string.

The other DBM file is a table of movies. It contains a Unique ID number, the name of the movie, followed by a list of 11 true or false values depending on whether the movie belongs in that genre or not. I created the table this way so that a movie can belong in more than one genre (For instance GalaxyQuest can be considered both Sci-Fi and Comedy.)

Current, inelegant database structure
Note

In my current implementation described above, I have to be very careful in ensuring that all the lists of 11-true-or-false values are always in the correct order. Plus, it makes it difficult to add or remove genres later. There are better ways of implementing this through a relational database such as MySQL. But this will do as an example.