[SOLVED] <option values> in mysql

[graham23s]

Hi Guys,

 

i have noticed nearly all other sites do this when storing option values into mysql

 

example

 

<option value="1">United Kingdom</option>

 

i usually do this:

 

<option value="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</option>

 

is there any advantages to doing the first one as opposed to the second? also how would i echo out the country name just going by a number?

 

thanks guys

 

Graham

[pikemsu28]

it normalizes the tables in mysql. 

 

the table that contains the info for the values would have an id which is the value and the description.

 

ID          Description

1            United Kingdom

2            USA

3            Russia

 

then the ID is stored into another table.

 

column1  column2  column3  country_id

info        info        info        2

info        info        info        1

info        info        info        3

 

 

[graham23s]

ah i see,

 

is it acceptable to do it the i was above at all?

 

cheers

 

Graham

[taith]

yes... it works perfectly fine... but it is also completly unnecessary...

[graham23s]

Thanks for the input guys,

 

i'm not exactly noob but not intermediate either i know ill look back at this code in months to come and laugh lol

 

cheers

 

Graham