What are the options for storing hierarchical data in a relational database? Good Overviews Generally speaking you're making a decision between fast read times (for example, nested set) or fast write times (adjacency list). Usually you end up with a combination of the options below that best fit your needs. The following provides some in depth reading: One more Nested Intervals vs. Adjacency List comparison: the best comparison of Adjacency List, Materialized Path, Nested Set and Nested Interval I've found. Models for hierarchical data: slides