Question

I have a class defined as below:

public class Category
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Name {get; set;}

    //... additional properties ...
}

My database has approximately 10 categories in it, and the set is unlikely to change in the future (though it is possible new categories will be added sporadically). Each category has a number of fields associated with it.

For the most part, other classes are populated with only the category’s Id. I need to perform different actions based on the specific category.

For example:

if (categoryId == 1)
{
    //do something
}
else
{
    //do something else
}

I’m looking to avoid hardcoded values when doing this.

I would typically use an enum for this purpose, but I’m not sure how to structure it in this case, since I already have a class for it. One idea is to create a separate enum called CategoryEnum, but this seems smelly. Another option is to use class constants.

What is the clearest way to compare the category Id against a specific constant value?

Answer 1

Based on Antarr Byrd’s response, it seemed that using class constants made for the clearest code.

public class Category
{
    public const int CATEGORY_ONE = 1;
    public const int CATEGORY_TWO = 2;
    //etc.

    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Name {get; set;}

    //... additional properties ...
}

And for comparing:

if (categoryId == Category.CATEGORY_ONE)
{
    //do stuff
}