1. Introduction

When you are designing a database system to hold data, one of the first decisions that you will need to make is about how the data will be collected and stored.

You already know the term GIGO. If you collect data and enter it into the system without careful consideration at the planning stage then the output from your system will be of little use.

One of the things that you can consider is to code some or all of your data in order to improve the efficiency of your system.

Over the next few pages we will examine why it can be useful to code data. We will also look at some of the drawbacks.

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