Whats more efficient?

I am working on a database that is being used for user authentication on a web site. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to lay out the table(s). Here is how its currently arranged:

PERMISSIONS(UserId[pk], Area1, Area2, Area3, etc..)

There is a record for each user, each area is a boolean y/n data type. I dont really think this is the most efficient way, because there are alot of null values (not all users have access to all areas).

Because the relationship of users to areas is M:M, would it be more efficient to break the above into the following two tables?

AREA(AreaId, blah, blah, etc..)
PERMISSIONS(UserId, AreaId) <--Intersection Table

I'm new at this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom Received on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 21:13:31 CEST