How important are lookup tables? - sql

Question

A lot of the applications I write make use of lookup tables, since that was just the way I was taught (normalization and such). The problem is that the queries I make are often more complicated because of this. They often look like this
get all posts that are still open
"SELECT * FROM posts WHERE status_id = (SELECT id FROM statuses WHERE name = 'open')"
Often times, the lookup tables themselves are very short. For instance, there may only be 3 or so different statuses. In this case, would it be okay to search for a certain type by using a constant or so in the application? Something like
get all posts that are still open
"SELECT * FROM posts WHERE status_id = ".Status::OPEN
Or, what if instead of using a foreign id, I set it as an enum and queried off of that?
Thanks.

Answer 1

The answer depends a little if you are limited to freeware such as PostGreSQL (not fully SQL compliant), or if you are thinking about SQL (ie. SQL compliant) and large databases.
In SQL compliant, Open Architecture databases, where there are many apps using one database, and many users using different report tools (not just the apps) to access the data, standards, normalisation, and open architecture requirements are important.
Despite the people who attempt to change the definition of "normalisation", etc. to suit their ever-changing purpose, Normalisation (the science) has not changed.
if you have data values such as {Open; Closed; etc} repeated in data tables, that is data duplication, a simple Normalisation error: if you those values change, you may have to update millions of rows, which is very limited design.
Such values should be Normalised into a Reference or Lookup table, with a short CHAR(2) PK:
O Open
C Closed
U [NotKnown]
The data values {Open;Closed;etc} are no longer duplicated in the millions of rows. It also saves space.
the second point is ease of change, if Closed were changed to Expired, again, one row needs to be changed, and that is reflected in the entire database; whereas in the un-normalised files, millions of rows need to be changed.
Adding new data values, eg. (H,HalfOpen) is then simply a matter of inserting one row.
in Open Architecture terms, the Lookup table is an ordinary table. It exists in the [SQL compliant] catalogue; as long as the FOREIGN KEY relation has been defined, the report tool can find that as well.
ENUM is a Non-SQL, do not use it. In SQL the "enum" is a Lookup table.
The next point relates to the meaningfulness of the key.
If the Key is meaningless to the user, fine, use an {INT;BIGINT;GUID;etc} or whatever is suitable; do not number them incrementally; allow "gaps".
But if the Key is meaningful to the user, do not use a meaningless number, use a meaningful Relational Key.
Now some people will get in to tangents regarding the permanence of PKs. That is a separate point. Yes, of course, always use a stable value for a PK (not "immutable", because no such thing exists, and a system-generated key does not provide row uniqueness).
{M,F} are unlikely to change
if you have used {0,1,2,4,6}, well don't change it, why would you want to. Those values were supposed to be meaningless, remember, only a meaningful Key need to be changed.
if you do use meaningful keys, use short alphabetic codes, that developers can readily understand (and infer the long description from). You will appreciate this only when you code SELECT and realise you do not have to JOIN every Lookup table. Power users too, appreciate it.
Since PKs are stable, particularly in Lookup tables, you can safely code:
WHERE status_code = 'O' -- Open
You do not have to JOIN the Lookup table and obtain the data value Open, as a developer, you are supposed to know what the Lookup PKs mean.
Last, if the database were large, and supported BI or DSS or OLAP functions in addition to OLTP (as properly Normalised databases can), then the Lookup table is actually a Dimension or Vector, in Dimension-Fact analyses. If it was not there, then it would have to be added in, to satisfy the requirements of that software, before such analyses can be mounted.
If you do that to your database from the outset, you will not have to upgrade it (and the code) later.
Your Example
SQL is a low-level language, thus it is cumbersome, especially when it comes to JOINs. That is what we have, so we need to just accept the encumbrance and deal with it. Your example code is fine. But simpler forms can do the same thing.
A report tool would generate:
SELECT p.*,
s.name
FROM posts p,
status s
WHERE p.status_id = s.status_id
AND p.status_id = 'O'
Another Exaple
For banking systems, where we use short codes which are meaningful (since they are meaningful, we do not change them with the seasons, we just add to them), given a Lookup table such as (carefully chosen, similar to ISO Country Codes):
Eq Equity
EqCS Equity/Common Share
OTC OverTheCounter
OF OTC/Future
Code such as this is common:
WHERE InstrumentTypeCode LIKE "Eq%"
And the users of the GUI would choose the value from a drop-down that displays
{Equity/Common Share;Over The Counter},
not {Eq;OTC;OF}, not {M;F;U}.
Without a lookup table, you can't do that, either in the apps, or in the report tool.

Answer 2

For look-up tables I use a sensible primary key -- usually just a CHAR(1) that makes sense in the domain with an additional Title (VARCHAR) field. This can maintain relationship enforcement while "keeping the SQL simple". The key to remember here is the look-up table does not "contain data". It contains identities. Some other identities might be time-zone names or assigned IOC country codes.
For instance gender:
ID Label
M Male
F Female
N Neutral
select * from people where gender = 'M'
Alternatively, an ORM could be used and manual SQL generation might never have to be done -- in this case the standard "int" surrogate key approach is fine because something else deals with it :-)
Happy coding.

Answer 3

Create a function for each lookup.
There is no easy way. You want performance and query simplicity. Ensure the following is maintained. You could create a SP_TestAppEnums to compare existing lookup values against the function and look for out of sync/zero returned.
CREATE FUNCTION [Enum_Post](#postname varchar(10))
RETURNS int
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #postId int
SET #postId =
CASE #postname
WHEN 'Open' THEN 1
WHEN 'Closed' THEN 2
END
RETURN #postId
END
GO
/* Calling the function */
SELECT dbo.Enum_Post('Open')
SELECT dbo.Enum_Post('Closed')

Answer 4

Question is: do you need to include the lookup tables (domain tables 'round my neck of the woods) in your queries? Presumably, these sorts of tables are usually
pretty static in nature — the domain might get extended, but it probably won't get shortened.
their primary key values are pretty unlikely to change as well (e.g., the status_id for a status of 'open' is unlikely to suddenly get changed to something other than what it was created as).
If the above assumptions are correct, there's no real need to add all those extra tables to your joins just so your where clause can use a friend name instead of an id value. Just filter on status_id directly where you need to. I'd suspect the non-key attribute in the where clause ('name' in your example above) is more likely to get changes than the key attribute ('name' in your example above): you're more protected by referencing the desire key value(s) of the domain table in your join.
Domain tables serve
to limit the domain of the variable via a foreign key relationship,
to allow the domain to be expanded by adding data to the domain table,
to populate UI controls and the like with user-friendly information,
Naturally, you'd need to suck domain tables into your queries where you you actually required the non-key attributes from the domain table (e.g., descriptive name of the value).
YMMV: a lot depends on context and the nature of the problem space.

Answer 5

The answer is "whatever makes sense".
lookup tables involve joins or subqueries which are not always efficient. I make use of enums a lot to do this job. its efficient and fast

Answer 6

Where possible (and It is not always . . .), I use this rule of thumb: If I need to hard-code a value into my application (vs. let it remain a record in the database), and also store that vlue in my database, then something is amiss with my design. It's not ALWAYS true, but basically, whatever the value in question is, it either represents a piece of DATA, or a peice of PROGRAM LOGIC. It is a rare case that it is both.
NOT that you won't find yourself discovering which one it is halfway into the project. But as the others said above, there can be trade-offs either way. Just as we don't always acheive "perfect" normalization in a database design (for reason of performance, or simply because you CAN take thngs too far in pursuit of acedemic perfection . . .), we may make some concious choices about where we locate our "look-up" values.
Personally, though, I try to stand on my rule above. It is either DATA, or PROGRAM LOGIC, and rarely both. If it ends up as (or IN) a record in the databse, I try to keep it out of the Application code (except, of course, to retrieve it from the database . . .). If it is hardcoded in my application, I try to keep it out of my database.
In cases where I can't observe this rule, I DOCUMENT THE CODE with my reasoning, so three years later, some poor soul will be able to ficure out how it broke, if that happens.

Answer 7

The commenters have convinced me of the error of my ways. This answer and the discussion that went along with it, however, remain here for reference.
I think a constant is appropriate here, and a database table is not. As you design your application, you expect that table of statuses to never, ever change, since your application has hard-coded into it what those statuses mean, anyway. The point of a database is that the data within it will change. There are cases where the lines are fuzzy (e.g. "this data might change every few months or so…"), but this is not one of the fuzzy cases.
Statuses are a part of your application's logic; use constants to define them within the application. It's not only more strictly organized that way, but it will also allow your database interactions to be significantly speedier.