Using a table to provide enum values in MySQL?

Is there a way to map one of the the columns contents of a MySQL table to an enum on another table in MySQL? I thought this would be a no brainer, but there doesn't seem to be any info that I can find on the subject.

Any advice or help on this matter would be cool and if it's not possible, does anyone know of an internal 开发者_高级运维reason why it wouldn't be possible?

Best regards everyone :)

Gary

The enum type is handy as a one-off, but it doesn't scale well to multiple tables and isn't standard SQL either. Best thing to do here is to use normal tables and relations:

1. Define a new table to hold the list of possible values; let's call it Master1
2. In the other two tables (let's call them Table1 and Table2), don't make the field an enum; just make it a normal field with a foreign key relation to Master1.

The foreign key relation will do the job of restricting to a list of possible values; and because foreign keys and relations are absolutely standard SQL, this approach will have other benefits - for example reporting tools can recognise the foreign key and understand how to use the related data.

If it doesn't do it, don't do it

Surely you just want a table of possible keys and then a foreign key mapping to that.

If you want a table with possible enum values and restrictions, go for groupings via another table or a groupid in the same table (if group members are unique).

Smells like table-stink though JOIN wise. Maybe best doing this in a stored procedure or in the app code and mapping it to a native value?