Data Normalization – Marc D Anderson's Blog

SharePoint

Using the ID Value for a Lookup Column

ByMarc D Anderson October 31, 2008July 28, 2011

Lookup columns in SharePoint can be very useful as a way to standardize input values. One of the drawbacks of Lookup columns is that they violate the Rules of Data Normalization (see my previous post entitled “SharePoint Is Not a Database”). Specifically, by storing the text value of the lookup rather than the ID, we…

SharePoint

“SharePoint Is Not a Database”

ByMarc D Anderson October 24, 2008June 1, 2010

This is something that I’ve told people more times than they really want to hear. Sure, SharePoint sits on top of SQL Server, which is an excellent database, but SharePoint itself is not a database! So is this a dire “abandon all hope, ye who enter here” message? Absolutely not. With planning and forethought, you…