title: Granting permission to individual fields in MySQL
body: <p>I have MySQL Database and have several tables in it.  One, of course, is the users table for storing the username and passwords (which also has the rest of their information).  For all the tables in the schema, I want to be able to grant users (or groups) permission to individual fields.  Maybe an example will help:</p>
  
  <p>There;'s a table called ACCOUNTS.  In this table, the user fills out (and keeps up to date) all the data about their company (name, address, POC, etc).  But I also want to have fields attached to this table that are read only for those users, such as LastPaymentDate (can't have them changing that!).  Further, among those users, permissions differ.  For example, the admin/superuser can change the name and address of the company, but standard users should not.</p>
  
  <p>I'm thinking this might need to be done by making several Views for the table, one for each level of permission (group).  I'm relatively new to MySQL, so I don't know if this is the best way.  I can also see a lookup table that says which fields  is allowed to view/edit.</p>
  
  <p>My initial thought was to include in the comments (or the name of the field) a value from 0-5, and then the user would have a permission level (0-can't see; 1-Read only; 2-Read-write; 3-(not used); 4-(not used); 5-Edit/Delete the field itself.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?  Views?  Lookup table to determine which fields to display?  Again, it'd not for the whole table, for each column within a table.</p>