Enumerated types in SQL Server 2008?
enumerated-types, enumeration, sql-server, sql-server-2008, t-sql
Solution
Why not have lookup table that contains the code and description. Creating a foreign key to this lookup table will result in only valid codes being used.
Problem
Is there some kind of mechanism in SQL Server to allow Enumerated type like functionality? For example, if I have a column Called "UpdateStatus" it usually gets setup with single letter values like so: - D - X - U - I This could equate to a lot of things. That leads to confusion. The alternative is to have it be a string column like this: - Downloaded - Deleted - Updated - Initialized But that has its own problems. Eventually someone is going to write something like this: `where UpdateStatus = 'Initalized'` (spelled wrong). Plus I hear that keying off of strings is not all that performant. So, is there any kind of enumerated type for SQL Server that can help out with this? Basically I am looking for compile time checking that a value being compared (ie "Initialized") is part of a list of values. I am using SQL Server 2008.