On Jan 5, 3:22 pm, tonypm <[email protected]> wrote: > I tend these days to always use the full descriptive words -
Definitely not in a case like this. The set of three values here maps *perfectly* to SQL-style 3-valued logic -- so use it! Store this as a boolean value. A larger set of strings could be stored directly in a character field in the database, but if the number is under 100 or so, I'd advise creating a separate table and simply referring to the strings by foreign key. This practice will avoid all sorts of data normalization issues. I'd never dream of storing a small number of repeating strings as literal text the way you're suggesting. > memory > implications are small, but it is easier to directly display the value > than have code to expand it wherever it is used. Not really -- especially if the application should run in more than one language. > It also tends to > make the code logic easier to follow. Again, not really. You have to explicitly test for == 'yes' rather than simply testing for truth or falsehood. > > tonypm Best, -- Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] http://www.marnen.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
