SQL: avoiding hard-coding or magic numbers

Question

Question: What are some other strategies on avoiding magic numbers or hard-coded values in your SQL scripts or stored procedures?

Consider a stored

Answer 1

Imagine

table dbo.Status
(
     Id int PK
    ,Description varchar
)
values
1, Received
2, Acknowledged
3, Under Review
etc

So, just

declare @StatusReceived int = 1
declare @StatusAcknowledged int = 2
declare @StatusUnderReview = 3
etc

As others mention, this assumes that IDENTITY is not set.

I too used to JOIN on lookup tables, but this keeps the SELECT shorter and easier to read.

This approach lends itself to automation, so I generate an entire table in a separate query, then copy over the elements I require (not all of them).