I would like to ask a question about database design. I'm doing a website which has a notification system using to push some system notification to the users (similar to facebook, but much simple). The message will only be some pre-set format, for example, message 1 is "{{name}} ask you a question". The {{name}} will be a variable depends on which member is involved in the notification.
The question is, how to save {{name}} in database. There are two choice in my mind: 1. use a varchar column to save the name as a string. 2. use a number column to save the member id and select the name by the member id from member table on request.
To consider about the system load, which one would be better?
It would be better to save the member id instead of using the varchar name. This is because if in future the name of the user changes in the master table, it will be automatically reflected to ur notification part.