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Old 09-16-2004, 06:57 PM  
Mortimer
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Where the hell am I now?
Posts: 153
What about simply using an int column in your big table and using some basic maths... you say you have 5 types, so you assign a number to each type:
type 1 = 1
type 2 = 2
type 3 = 4
type 4 = 8
type 5 = 16
so if your entry has all 5 types, the total to enter in the int column is 31, if it has type 1, 3 and 5, the value is 21, etc.

tihis way you do not have to use any joins, you do not make your table much bigger, and you can add more types in the future without any modification to your table structure...

that's the way i'd do it
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