Selecting and storing one or more choices

[bbwolff]

At data entry i'd like to assign some denominators for quick searching later.
let's say these are interests like sports, games, music....
there could be one or more categories for each person, and in the end there could be a lot of categories, certainly 20+, but the idea is that i could add more when needed.

What's the best way to store these data?
Should i create a new table called groups and create a coloumn for each category and write the ID there? Should i add one field to the common table and store all interests there as csv? Many coloumns?

how to collect these data? i don't want text field due to spelling errors and inconsistency (don't want someone to add automobiles and the other cars). Plenty of checkboxes? Multichoice box?

 

[bbwolff]

I'm doing a surgery dtb. We collect data for a lot of different things and sometimes the data is fractioned in details, so it could be hard to quickly select all pts that have some common feature. So i'd like to add some other index or groups, maybe even user defined for each person to define pts he's looking for. those groups are used for things that can't be simply deducted from gathered data. In theory i could of course segment and add stuff to original data gathering forms, but that would mean more work for each input and ppl are complaining as it is. Would also be a lot of hassle to create search forms. this way they'd just quickly click or select groups that are appropriate and then you could simply search by one keyword.
I could add a checkbox for each group and then just store surgery IDs in a table in different coloumns.

 

[bbwolff]

maybe... sounds complicated though

i have this solution currently
i created a multivalue list, multiple choices, all stored in one coloumn of the reference table
then i concentate all values to a csv and store that in one field in a
have to be careful with choice of values (can't have car and care etc...)