What data type is best for

Databases
1

I have a field where up to 7 choices can be made (0-7) and each choice would require a pretty long explanation (about a sentence) So should I use the VARCHAR(300) data type or if I can figure out a way to correspond each of the 7 options (which will always be the same) to a number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) which would need a smaller data type (MEDIUMINT?), then how would I use PHP to convert any of the numbers to an explanation (which would be nothing more than a string)

Thank you!!

2

you would have two columns one for the explanation, the other for the value of 1 through 7 as the id.

3

You can either use two tables and link them together via tinyint (you really don’t need mediumint for 1-7)



id  name  choice
----------------
1   john  1
2   suzy  3
3   pete  7


id  description
----------------
1   I want breakfast with orange juice
2   I want breakfast with apple juice
3   I don't want any breakfast at all
(etc)

or you can do the latter in PHP if you wish


array(
  1=>'I want breakfast with orange juice',
  'I want breakfast with apple juice',
  'I don\\'t want any breakfast at all'
);

but that’s less portable and you won’t be able to interpret the data anymore from the database alone.