Or maybe just bad practice. Thought before I go any further I'll ask.
I have a few static tables that list out "items" and the primary key is an "assigned" ID. Meaning I did not set auto-increment. As I add items I will add the associated ID number.
Now to the transactional tables. While the label has the item listed in the form, it gets inserted into the table with the ID number. To illustrate:
Static_Table ID Value 1 United 2 Jet Blue 3 Southwest 4 American
Dynamic_Table MemberID Airline_Pref 200 1 201 4 202 3 203 4 204 1
Pros cons dangers advantages comments ?
Thank you Stuart
Stuart
I personally would switch to a 2 letter code for the Airline Code, as in:
UN United JB Jet Blue SW SouthWest AM American
simply because it will be much easier to train people and there will be fewer mistakes. It is much easier to remember "AM" for American instead of "4". It would be a different thing if you had over a hundred airlines, then you could use numbers. But for a few dozen airlines, letter codes are easier to understand. Especially when you print simple reports, "AM" is a lot more readable than "4".
Mike
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