What's the point of SET fields?

[Jeff Snoxell]

Hi,

I've setup a mysql table field which is a SET type, but it seems to be completely pointless. I can't see why I should use a SET type rather than a string for the following reasons:

1. I appear to be able to store whatever I want in there. MySQL doesn't enforce the rule that what I stick in there must be items from the set I defined when I defined my field.

2. What I do a SELECT statement the only way I can interrogate records to determine if a certain set value is present is to do a WHERE MySet LIKE '%MySetMember%' which is fairly useless if set items contain other set items in their name (ie if I have set items "A","AB","ABC" then obviously my LIKE query searching for an "A" will have issues).

Or am I missing something?

Thanks,


Jeff


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