enums_in_rails.md

enums_in_rails.md

db/model	string/no enum	integer/array enum	integer/hash enum	string/hash enum	pg enum/hash enum
migration(pg)	add_column(:scraper_requests, :initiation_context, :string)	add_column(:scraper_requests, :initiation_context, :integer)	add_column(:scraper_requests, :initiation_context, :integer)	add_column(:scraper_requests, :initiation_context, :string, default: 'regular')	execute("CREATE TYPE initiation_contexts AS ENUM ('regular', 'onboarding');") add_column(:scraper_requests, :initiation_context, :initiation_contexts)
model	validates(:initiation_context, inclusion: { in: %w[onboarding] }	enum initiation_context: [:regular, :onboarding]	enum initiation_context: { regular: 0, onboarding: 1 }	enum initiation_context: { regular: 'regular', onboarding: 'onboarding' }	enum initiation_context: { regular: 'regular', onboarding: 'onboarding' }
changes	easy	hard (order dependency)	easy	easy	hard (requires db migration, value updates complicated)
readability	good	bad (integer values in the db)	bad (integer values in the db)	good	good
helper methods	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
validation (inclusion)	no (explicitly added)	yes	yes	yes	yes
db constraint (data integrity assured)	no	no	no	no	yes
comments		best query performance and minimal size when using integer	best query performance and minimal size when using integer	not documented well (see rails/rails#43529)

• rails 6 docs:
  • https://guides.rubyonrails.org/v6.0/active_record_postgresql.html#enumerated-types
  • https://guides.rubyonrails.org/v6.0/active_record_querying.html#enums
  • https://api.rubyonrails.org/v6.0.3/classes/ActiveRecord/Enum.html
• latest docs:
  • https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_postgresql.html#enumerated-types
  • https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html#enums
  • https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Enum.html
• other
  • rails/rails#43529
  • https://naturaily.com/blog/ruby-on-rails-enum