Path: text.usenetserver.com!out02b.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!in04.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!nlpi057.nbdc.sbc.com!prodigy.net!flpi088.ffdc.sbc.com!prodigy.com!flpi107.ffdc.sbc.com!flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com.POSTED!22f23b6c!not-for-mail Sender: Mark Harrison From: mh@pixar.com Subject: foreign key, or "in" constraint? Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.misc User-Agent: tin/1.9.1-20060409 ("Benmore") (UNIX) (Linux/2.6.18-1.2200p7 (x86_64)) Lines: 21 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 138.72.131.96 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com 1223325557 ST000 138.72.131.96 (Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:39:17 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:39:17 EDT Organization: at&t http://my.att.net/ X-UserInfo1: T[OIR^OG]JVWCFD[LZKJOPHAWB\^PBQLGPQRJRQIMASJETAANVW[AKWZE\]^XQWIGNE_[EBL@^_\^JOCQ^RSNVLGTFTKHTXHHP[NB\_C@\SD@EP_[KCXX__AGDDEKGFNB\ZOKLRNCY_CGG[RHT_UN@C_BSY\G__IJIX_PLSA[CCFAULEY\FL\VLGANTQQ]FN Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:39:17 GMT Xref: usenetserver.com comp.databases.oracle.misc:253962 X-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:40:03 EDT (text.usenetserver.com) Suppose you have a table with a status column, and the status can be one of "queued", "inprogress", "failed", or "completed". This can be enforced two ways: 1. status has a FK to a "statuses" table, and the allowed statuses are in that table. 2. with a constraint such as status in ('queued','ip','failed','completed') Which is more typically used? What are the pros and cons, tradeoffs, etc, of each? Many TIA! Mark -- Mark Harrison Pixar Animation Studios