Question

I have an order which has a status (which in code is an Enum). The question is how to persist this. I could:

1. Persist the string in a field and then map back to enum on data retrieval.
2. Persist this as an integer and then map back to enum on data retrieval.
3. Create separate table for enum value and do a join on data retrieval.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

If this is a fixed list (which it seems it is, or else you shouldn’t store it as an enum), I wouldn’t use #1.

The main reason to use #3 over #2 is for ease of use with self-service querying utilities. However, I’d actually go with a variant of #2: Store the value as an integer and map to an enum on data retrieval. However, also create a table representing the enum type, with the value as the PK and the name as another column. That way it’s simple, quick, and efficient to use with your code, but also easy to get the logical value with self-service querying and other uses that don’t use your data access code.