On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 8:08 AM, John F. Eldredge <[email protected]>wrote:
> In fact, the technique of having the user select from a list of words, but > actually storing the value as an arbitrary ID (generally numeric), is the > recommended technique in database design. It is called "normalizing the > database". Having the linking value be an ID value means that, should you > want to change the verbal description of the value, for example from soccer > to association_football, you only have to change the value once, in the > lookup table, rather than changing it in thousands of places. > +1 Not only does this insulate from change and allow alternate terms to map to thzsame code, but also supports internationalization. -- Bill [email protected] [email protected]
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