Peter Eisentraut wrote:
An objection to enums on the ground that foreign keys can accomplish the same thing could be extended to object to any data type with a finite domain.

Exactly. The extreme case is the boolean type, which could easily be represented by a two-value enum. Or, if you were feeling masochistic, a FK to a separate table. Which is easier?

People regularly do stuff like having domains over finite text values, or having a FK to a separate (static) table, or using some sort of EAV. Enums are type-safe, easily ordered, relatively efficient and don't leave zillions of little static tables all over the place, a combination of attributes that none of the alternative solutions in this space present.

Cheers

Tom


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