Categories...how to implement

[tvspec]

I'm doing a quick database with some products that fit into about 5 categories. Some products fit into more than 1 category. I'm brand new at MySQL..and I'm not sure what to use...looks like I should either use ENUM or SET.

So how do I create a field that can have one or more categories chosen?

[FliKman]

I'm doing a quick database with some products that fit into about 5 categories. Some products fit into more than 1 category. I'm brand new at MySQL..and I'm not sure what to use...looks like I should either use ENUM or SET.

So how do I create a field that can have one or more categories chosen?

why not use a lookup table and join the tables


productid categorieid
1 1
1 2
2 4
2 1
3 4
4 5

[tvspec]

why not use a lookup table and join the tables


productid categorieid
1 1
1 2
2 4
2 1
3 4
4 5

Not sure what you mean by "lookup table" currently I had a product id column which has a different number for each product (primary/unique) - then I have a category column (categories 1-5) how would I make it so that some have more than one category without making new rows?

[suzkaw]

What he is saying is create a new table that is basically just a look up table. Attached is an example.

[tvspec]

What he is saying is create a new table that is basically just a look up table. Attached is an example.

I do have a lookup table, but still, the way I have it, using varchar, I can't post two numbers for the two categories that there are for one of the items.