Product attribute - too many of them, how to handle?

[jc2002]

Hello,
I have maybe 5 attributes to a products, each attribute has about 50+ values.
My understanding is that each variation is stores as a database entry. But really I don't need a seperate entry for each variation.

What I need is that customer is able to choose a value for each attribute. Then as long as I see the value in the order, then I know what to ship. Can I insert a drop down using HTML instead of define values in product attribute?

But I do need to show the values on the order. What is the best approach here?

[michael_s]

The only way to get it to show up in product page and in the order email is to add it the attributes to the db.