Charles,
CREATE TABLE phone_types ( type VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY ); INSERT INTO phone_types VALUE ( 'Work' ); INSERT INTO phone_types VALUE ( 'Home' ); etc ... CREATE TABLE phone ( phone_id Identifier_type IDENTITY, phone_number varchar(20) NOT NULL, community_id numeric(12) NOT NULL, type varchar(10) NULL REFERENCES phone_types(type) ON DELETE SET NULL ); Simple, neh? And it lets you add new types, at any time, without re-building the table. IMHO, the guy who built the database you're converting was either a total hack or working around some serious platform shortcomings. BTW, are you sure you want phone.type to be NULLable? Were it me, I would make it required, in which case the declaration would be: type varchar(10) NOT NULL REFERENCES phone_types(type) -- -Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster