Question

Not sure what i am doing wrong here:

mysql> use co_sysdev;
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
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Database changed
mysql> select * from system_params;
Empty set (0.01 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO system_params (NUM_ENGINE_D_PROCESSES,MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_CLIENT,MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_LOCATION) VALUES(5,8,2);
ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'NUM_ENGINE_D_PROCESSES' in 'field list'
mysql> 

also:

 desc system_params;
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type                                                                                               | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| attribute | enum('NUM_ENGINE_D_PROCESSES','MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_CLIENT','MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_LOCATION') | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| value     | varchar(256)                                                                                       | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

also:

 show create table system_params;
+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table         | Create Table                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| system_params | CREATE TABLE `system_params` (
  `attribute` enum('NUM_ENGINE_D_PROCESSES','MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_CLIENT','MAX_NUM_BATCHES_PER_LOCATION') NOT NULL,
  `value` varchar(256) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`attribute`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 |
+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

Answer 1

you can’t use enum values as field names. Your insert has to be something like

INSERT INTO system_params (attribute, value) VALUES ('NUM_ENGINE_D_PROCESSES', 'foo');

unless your possible values that can be inserted here are unbounded (e.g. end-user definable), you’re going down a very very painful path.