What is EAV?

Entry, Attribute, Value model (EAV) is also known as object - attribute - value or Open Schema. It is a database or catalog management system that is used in Magento.

EAV is designed for databases where a large number of attributes identify a given entity; however, not all of these attributes are applicable to that entity.

Only non-empty data values are stored when you use this model. Although this model facilitates efficient storage, it is more complex than the flat model, as developers have to run many queries to get complete information about a product or entity.

Entities are Magento data items – products, customers, categories, orders, and others. Each of these have a separate, dedicated database record.

Attributes are the data elements each entity has. It goes without saying that a single entity can have more than one corresponding attribute. For example, a product can have a status, name, price, number of items, and other attributes attached to its record.

Values are the data elements that define attributes. For example, the value of the status attribute of the product entity will be “In stock” or “Sold out”.