mysql custom global defined variable

Question

In my database design, I tend to store some variable that is meant to be acting as a ROLE or TYPE as SMALLINT. For example :

Answer 1

Your approach is fine, if you want to see the values in MySQL instead of 1, 2, 3 etc. then consider this:

define('HOUSE_SMALL_TYPE', 'HOUSE_SMALL_TYPE');
define('HOUSE_MEDIUM_TYPE', 'HOUSE_MEDIUM_TYPE');

Then in MySQL you can use:

SELECT * FROM house  WHERE type = 'HOUSE_SMALL_TYPE';

You just need to remember that you cannot just jam any value you like into house.type without having support for it in PHP.

Even better consider this:

class HouseType {
  const SMALL = 'SMALL';
  const MEDIUM = 'MEDIUM';
}

or

class House {
  const TYPE_SMALL = 'SMALL';
  const TYPE_MEDIUM = 'MEDIUM';
}

because then you can use HouseType::SMALL or House::TYPE_SMALL in your PHP code rather than using a global define. By doing this you may benefit from code completion in some IDE's.