> On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 8:08 AM, John F. Eldredge <j...@jfeldredge.com> > 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".
> On 01/07/2010 15:25, Anthony wrote: > Umm...no. At least, not exactly. If a single column is independent from > other columns, it is not necessary for normalization to store it as an > arbitrary ID. (For example, if you have a database table containing a > driver's license number, date of birth, and hair color, you generally > wouldn't store the hair color as an arbitrary ID and then have a separate > table to look up the hair color. It certainly isn't necessary for > normalization. Assuming driver's license number is your primary key, hair > color is a fact about the key, the whole key, and nothing but the key.) On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 4:38 AM, Colin Smale <colin.sm...@xs4all.nl> wrote: > Actually that would be exactly what you would do, assuming you want the list > of colours to be controlled and finite. No it isn't. If I wanted the list of colors to be controlled and finite I'd use a check constraint. > Which DBMS do you call crappy and which do you call good? Sorry, not going to play that game. _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
