Datatype for different categories in a database

database-designdatatypes

I have got the following categories for accounting and cash flow purposes:

Equity
     Contribution
     Distribution
     Valuation
Debt
     Issuance
     Payment
     Valuation Allowance
Interest
     Accrued
     Paid
     Valuation Allowance

I have broken them into 3 tables: equity, debt, and interest. Each table has the following columns:

ID
Date
Amount
Type

My question is, within the "type" column, should I be using a number, i.e. 1,2,3, or text to indicate the value?

Best Answer

Speaking from the programming side of the house, I would do a numerical value that is a foreign key to a "type" table. This way if you change the text value, all previous entries automatically update, and adding new types is just a matter of adding them into the table.

This has the added benefit that if you do something like an interface with a dropdown list to select the value, it also automatically updates and there are no coding changes needed to update the list.

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