Normalization

[Anon]

Wondering which would be best method. For an item table there is a column for condition, the user would choose 1 of 4 values from a drop down menu, poor, fair, good, excellent. My question is, which would be better (MySQL) to have the value entered into the column or sent to condition table and a condition_id value entered in item table?
It appears the best method might even be Enum but I cant seem to find enough information on this data type, or how to create it using phpadmin.
Thanks in advance,
Jim

[Anon]

enum is a lot like arrays as column types. Many people will argue that it defeats the purpose of a relational database to use enum columns or array type columns.

I would recommend going with a condition table and a foreign key in item. However, because you're using mysql, which doesn't support views, it's harder to make a well normalized database because all your queries will be more complicated, which may lead to hard to find bugs, etc.

[Anon]

I would say just store the good, poor, fair, etc....Those are values that aren't likely to change where using a foreign key would come in handy. store them as enum or just plain text....there is such a thing as too much normalization.

---John Holmes...

[Anon]

My suggestion would be to use the a condition table.

This will make your system much more flexible.

For instance, you could add a new condition just by inserting a record into the table, without having to change a single script. So, if you wanted to add a condition of "bust", badabing - 2 seconds and it's done.

On a bigger scale, there's a case to be made for keeping ANY text (as distinct from code, html etc) in tables. This makes it easy to localise your system, or transfer it to parallel uses.

Cheers,

Jack

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