To break my hiatus here at dev|sushi I decided to publish something I made for myself while working on a project for my freelance business. The form I am creating requires a country selection box and then later to display country names within the application. Instead of doing a god awful static select box on the form and then storing the full country name in the database, I decided to use the MySQL table approach. Simple and effective and allows you to use a nice space saving char(2) over a varchar(150) in your other tables.

I’ve made the two letter country code the primary key and have the full names as used by PayPal. If anybody can think of other important fields that could be included in an update of this reference let me know. Also, any additions or corrections are appreciated.

246 Country MySQL import plain text (.txt) file

--
-- Table structure for table `countries`
--

CREATE TABLE `countries` (
  `ccode` varchar(2) NOT NULL default '',
  `country` varchar(200) NOT NULL default '',
  PRIMARY KEY  (`ccode`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

--
-- Dumping data for table `countries`
--

INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AF', 'Afghanistan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AX', 'Åland Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AL', 'Albania');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DZ', 'Algeria');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AS', 'American Samoa');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AD', 'Andorra');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AO', 'Angola');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AI', 'Anguilla');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AQ', 'Antarctica');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AG', 'Antigua and Barbuda');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AR', 'Argentina');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AM', 'Armenia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AW', 'Aruba');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AU', 'Australia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AT', 'Austria');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AZ', 'Azerbaijan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BS', 'Bahamas');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BH', 'Bahrain');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BD', 'Bangladesh');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BB', 'Barbados');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BY', 'Belarus');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BE', 'Belgium');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BZ', 'Belize');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BJ', 'Benin');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BM', 'Bermuda');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BT', 'Bhutan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BO', 'Bolivia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BA', 'Bosnia and Herzegovina');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BW', 'Botswana');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BV', 'Bouvet Island');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BR', 'Brazil');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IO', 'British Indian Ocean Territory');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BN', 'Brunei Darussalam');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BG', 'Bulgaria');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BF', 'Burkina Faso');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BI', 'Burundi');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KH', 'Cambodia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CM', 'Cameroon');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CA', 'Canada');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CV', 'Cape Verde');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KY', 'Cayman Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CF', 'Central African Republic');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TD', 'Chad');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CL', 'Chile');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CN', 'China');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CX', 'Christmas Island');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CC', 'Cocos (Keeling) Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CO', 'Colombia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KM', 'Comoros');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CG', 'Congo');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CD', 'Congo, The Democratic Republic of the');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CK', 'Cook Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CR', 'Costa Rica');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CI', 'Côte D\'Ivoire');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HR', 'Croatia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CU', 'Cuba');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CY', 'Cyprus');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CZ', 'Czech Republic');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DK', 'Denmark');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DJ', 'Djibouti');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DM', 'Dominica');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DO', 'Dominican Republic');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('EC', 'Ecuador');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('EG', 'Egypt');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SV', 'El Salvador');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GQ', 'Equatorial Guinea');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ER', 'Eritrea');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('EE', 'Estonia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ET', 'Ethiopia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FK', 'Falkland Islands (Malvinas)');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FO', 'Faroe Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FJ', 'Fiji');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FI', 'Finland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FR', 'France');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GF', 'French Guiana');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PF', 'French Polynesia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TF', 'French Southern Territories');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GA', 'Gabon');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GM', 'Gambia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GE', 'Georgia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('DE', 'Germany');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GH', 'Ghana');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GI', 'Gibraltar');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GR', 'Greece');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GL', 'Greenland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GD', 'Grenada');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GP', 'Guadeloupe');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GU', 'Guam');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GT', 'Guatemala');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GG', 'Guernsey');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GN', 'Guinea');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GW', 'Guinea-Bissau');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GY', 'Guyana');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HT', 'Haiti');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HM', 'Heard Island and McDonald Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VA', 'Holy See (Vatican City State)');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HN', 'Honduras');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HK', 'Hong Kong');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('HU', 'Hungary');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IS', 'Iceland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IN', 'India');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ID', 'Indonesia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IR', 'Iran, Islamic Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IQ', 'Iraq');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IE', 'Ireland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IM', 'Isle of Man');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IL', 'Israel');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('IT', 'Italy');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('JM', 'Jamaica');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('JP', 'Japan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('JE', 'Jersey');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('JO', 'Jordan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KZ', 'Kazakhstan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KE', 'Kenya');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KI', 'Kiribati');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KP', 'Korea, Democratic People\'s Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KR', 'Korea, Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KW', 'Kuwait');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KG', 'Kyrgyzstan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LA', 'Lao People\'s Democratic Republic');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LV', 'Latvia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LB', 'Lebanon');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LS', 'Lesotho');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LR', 'Liberia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LY', 'Libyan Arab Jamahiriya');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LI', 'Liechtenstein');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LT', 'Lithuania');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LU', 'Luxembourg');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MO', 'Macao');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MK', 'Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MG', 'Madagascar');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MW', 'Malawi');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MY', 'Malaysia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MV', 'Maldives');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ML', 'Mali');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MT', 'Malta');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MH', 'Marshall Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MQ', 'Martinique');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MR', 'Mauritania');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MU', 'Mauritius');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('YT', 'Mayotte');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MX', 'Mexico');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('FM', 'Micronesia, Federated States of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MD', 'Moldova, Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MC', 'Monaco');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MN', 'Mongolia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ME', 'Montenegro');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MS', 'Montserrat');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MA', 'Morocco');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MZ', 'Mozambique');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MM', 'Myanmar');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NA', 'Namibia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NR', 'Nauru');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NP', 'Nepal');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NL', 'Netherlands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AN', 'Netherlands Antilles');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NC', 'New Caledonia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NZ', 'New Zealand');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NI', 'Nicaragua');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NE', 'Niger');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NG', 'Nigeria');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NU', 'Niue');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NF', 'Norfolk Island');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MP', 'Northern Mariana Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('NO', 'Norway');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('OM', 'Oman');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PK', 'Pakistan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PW', 'Palau');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PS', 'Palestinian Territory, Occupied');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PA', 'Panama');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PG', 'Papua New Guinea');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PY', 'Paraguay');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PE', 'Peru');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PH', 'Philippines');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PN', 'Pitcairn');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PL', 'Poland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PT', 'Portugal');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PR', 'Puerto Rico');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('QA', 'Qatar');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('RE', 'Reunion');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('RO', 'Romania');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('RU', 'Russian Federation');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('RW', 'Rwanda');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('BL', 'Saint Barthélemy');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SH', 'Saint Helena');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('KN', 'Saint Kitts and Nevis');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LC', 'Saint Lucia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('MF', 'Saint Martin');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('PM', 'Saint Pierre and Miquelon');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VC', 'Saint Vincent and the Grenadines');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('WS', 'Samoa');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SM', 'San Marino');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ST', 'Sao Tome and Principe');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SA', 'Saudi Arabia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SN', 'Senegal');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('RS', 'Serbia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SC', 'Seychelles');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SL', 'Sierra Leone');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SG', 'Singapore');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SK', 'Slovakia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SI', 'Slovenia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SB', 'Solomon Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SO', 'Somalia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ZA', 'South Africa');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GS', 'South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ES', 'Spain');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('LK', 'Sri Lanka');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SD', 'Sudan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SR', 'Suriname');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SJ', 'Svalbard and Jan Mayen');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SZ', 'Swaziland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SE', 'Sweden');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('CH', 'Switzerland');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('SY', 'Syrian Arab Republic');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TW', 'Taiwan, Province Of China');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TJ', 'Tajikistan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TZ', 'Tanzania, United Republic of');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TH', 'Thailand');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TL', 'Timor-Leste');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TG', 'Togo');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TK', 'Tokelau');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TO', 'Tonga');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TT', 'Trinidad and Tobago');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TN', 'Tunisia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TR', 'Turkey');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TM', 'Turkmenistan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TC', 'Turks and Caicos Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('TV', 'Tuvalu');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('UG', 'Uganda');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('UA', 'Ukraine');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('AE', 'United Arab Emirates');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('GB', 'United Kingdom');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('US', 'United States');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('UM', 'United States Minor Outlying Islands');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('UY', 'Uruguay');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('UZ', 'Uzbekistan');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VU', 'Vanuatu');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VE', 'Venezuela');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VN', 'Viet Nam');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VG', 'Virgin Islands, British');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('VI', 'Virgin Islands, U.S.');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('WF', 'Wallis And Futuna');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('EH', 'Western Sahara');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('YE', 'Yemen');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ZM', 'Zambia');
INSERT INTO `countries` VALUES ('ZW', 'Zimbabwe');

I decided to add tagging to a web app that I’m working on in my spare time and wondered after the best way to do it in the database. I was curious if current services that use tags (flickr, del.icio.us, etc) did it using a normalized or denormalized schema. The first article I came across was “Tags: Database schemas” by Philipp Keller which gave three example schemas and expounded on thier different pros and cons. I quickly realized as I was reading that the answer depends greatly on the question (as is usually the case) and how you want to implement tagging is the first thing to figure out. Putting the how aside I continued reading the article and the great comments. One of the commenter’s was Nitin Borwankar who mentioned his blog focused solely on tagging schemas for the new breed of “folksonomy” based tools. I immediately read the archive from start to finish and added his RSS feed to my GReader. The main thing that I got out of his blog was that if your going to do tagging you might as well do it right and treat tags as full-fledged schema elements.

In designing the schema for my new project I decided to try using the “rules” set out by Ruby On Rails for table name, private and foreign key, association tables, etc. The gist of it is that if you have a table that will contain employees you call it “employees” (ie use the plural form) and inside use “id” (lowercase) for the primary key. So departments would be “departments” with primary key “id” and the “employees” table would contain a foreign key called “department_id” (non-plural form beside _id), simple right? Associations are equally simple for those many-to-many relationships. We create the table “projects” with primary key “id” (guess what it holds) and the association table “employees_projects” with the foreign keys “employee_id” and “project_id”. A trinary relationship would be “departments_employees_projects” (note the alphabetical order of tables) although I don’t think that relationship makes sense for traditional corporations. If anyone can find me a url to reference for the “rules” I just described drop it in the comments. I’ll have more information about my spare time project in the future but for now I hope you this database stuff useful.