Help with SELECT statement

[eluser]bgreene[/eluser]
the advantage of a lookup table is eg you can change a device name in the device table and all reports will immediately show the new name without you having to rename countless occurrences in the downtime table. it also makes your code less error prone as you are comparing only integers rather than case- and spelling- sensitive strings. in an accounting system for example, a customer shows up in very many places but his name will only appear in one table and all other references will be via his id. you only need to change his name once. the same data should never ever be entered more than once in a system