Is it better to use to id or actual name when relating to another table in MySQL database?

[imgrooot 1]

Say I have 2 tables.

 

Table 1: Type(type_id, type_name)

Table 2: Records(record_id, record_name, record_type)

 

Under the "record_type" column, is it better to use type_id(eg. 10) or type_name(eg. Clothing & Watches)?  If the answer is use the name, is it better to use the original name(Clothing & Watches) or a slug name(clothing-watches)?

[Jacques1 629]

So you're talking about a foreign key used to join the two tables?

 

Then the ID is better, because it's stable and efficient. Names change, which means the database has to keep the tables synchronized. And names are long, which means it's relatively expensive to compare them.

 

Numeric IDs, on the other hand, are unlikely to ever change, and they have a fixed length.

[imgrooot 1]

So you're talking about a foreign key used to join the two tables?

 

Then the ID is better, because it's stable and efficient. Names change, which means the database has to keep the tables synchronized. And names are long, which means it's relatively expensive to compare them.

 

Numeric IDs, on the other hand, are unlikely to ever change, and they have a fixed length.

 

Got ya. Thanks.