Question

I have some tables that represent various types. They usually just consist of an ID (int), and a name. Ideally I would have this in an enum. Is there a way to map a table like this onto an enum?

EDIT: How would I handle it if there were extra fields other than an ID and Name?

Answer 1

If it’s just an id and a name, I generally do this:

public enum FootScent : int { Unknown = 0, Mild = 1, Sweaty =2, SteppedInSomething = 3 } 

and then on the LINQ entity property:

[Column('foot_scent_id', DbType = 'Int NOT NULL')] public FootScent Scent { get; set; } 

For lookup tables with columns other than ‘id’ and ‘name’ that are needed, I usually just make a normal LINQ entity for them, though depending on your implementation it would probably be worth caching these to minimize trips to the DB.