Question

I am using EF4.3.1 and MVC4 code first.
My database is being created except for one column and no error is given.
Why would this column not be created?
Should I be using the EnumDataType attribute (it doesn’t seem to do anything)?

public class Setting
{
    public Guid SettingId { get; set; }
    public string Key { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }

    [Column("DataType", TypeName = "varchar")]
    public SettingDataType DataType { get; set; }
    }


    public enum SettingDataType
    {
        [Description("String")]
        text,
        [Description("Integer")]
        integer,
        [Description("Boolean")]
        boolean
    }

Answer 1

Enums are still not supported in EF 4.3. It does not make a difference whether you specify another DataType in the attribute.

Enums are simply completely ignored by EF when analyzing the class and generating the tables.

Enum support is promised for EF 5.0 though … finally!

For now use an int Property instead and add another Property that casts the int to the enum value on the fly. Also just to be sure nothing breaks with the next EF version add the Ignore keyword.

public class Setting
{
    public Guid SettingId { get; set; }
    public string Key { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }

    [Column("DataType", TypeName = "varchar")]
    public int DataTypeInt { get; set; }

    [Ignore]
    public SettingDataType DataType
    { 
        get { return (SettingDataType)this.DataTypeInt; }
        set { return this.DataTypeInt = (int)value; }
    }
}