What are the potential pitfalls of using a "Hilfstabelle" approach to link multiple values in a PHP application?

Potential pitfalls of using a "Hilfstabelle" approach in a PHP application include increased complexity, decreased performance due to multiple database queries, and potential data inconsistency if not properly maintained. To mitigate these issues, consider using a caching mechanism to store the lookup values in memory and reduce database queries.

// Example of using caching to store lookup values in memory
$cache = []; // Initialize an empty cache array

function getValueFromHilfstabelle($key) {
    global $cache;
    
    if (isset($cache[$key])) {
        return $cache[$key]; // Return value from cache if available
    } else {
        // Perform database query to fetch value
        $value = // Query to fetch value from Hilfstabelle
        $cache[$key] = $value; // Store value in cache
        return $value;
    }
}

// Example usage
$value1 = getValueFromHilfstabelle('key1');
$value2 = getValueFromHilfstabelle('key2');