How to design table: use dynamic fields?

[Debased]

I am designing a form for users to write letters in which they give “reasons” for denying a particular service. It is a State-required form letter and there are 7 “reasons” to deny. The user usually chooses just one “reason” and then types in (free-style) the text for the specific rationale (Memo field). Sometimes, however, they need to choose more than one “reason” so I have to design the table to accommodate up to 7 “reasons”.

For the underlying table I could create 7 fields, one for each reason, but this seems like a very inefficient use of disk space as most records would always have 6 blank fields.

Anyone have an idea for a table(s) design? I know this calls for some kind of dynamic procedure or pehaps a separate table to store the “reasons” but I am stuck and my brain is froze.
Thanks in advance for any and all replies!!

 

[neileg]

You don't need one field per reason, you need one record in another table. This way you only create the number of records you need for the number of reasosn. Read up on normailsation in these forums.