List_type table

MusicBrainz Development
1

Quick question about the link_type table. It’s hierarchical, but the hierarchies seem a little messed up. For example, in entity_type0=series, entity_type1=url, there are 10 records without a parent. So those should all be root level, right? And the child_order field should run from 0 to 9. But what’s actually there is this: 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, NULL.

Is this something that’s pending review, or am I misunderstanding the way the table works?

2

Child order is mostly just used to sort the stuff when displaying it on the site. Same child order sorts alphabetically, but larger child order sorts later. So we generally use it to show some of the most common / useful types first, and others later, without having to necessarily decide the order of all of the types since if they’re similarly useful alphabetic sort is good enough.

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