Limit the value of a MySQL datatype to a specific range (preferably not ENUM)

Question

I want to limit the datatype value that can be stored within a field to a specific range of integer values: [0,10].

On user input within a PHP script I validate and

Answer 1

You can create a table of allowed vote values and add a foreign key in your votes table, so when you try to insert a vote with user_vote value other than existing in your allowed_votes table you get a constraint fail error:

CREATE TABLE allowed_votes (
  vote_rank TINYINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (vote_rank)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

INSERT INTO allowed_votes( vote_rank ) VALUES(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10);

ALTER TABLE votes
ADD FOREIGN KEY (user_vote) REFERENCES allowed_votes (vote_rank);