Re: Pulling data from a constraint def - Mailing list pgsql-general

From David Fetter
Subject Re: Pulling data from a constraint def
Date
Msg-id 20100514001436.GE3460@fetter.org
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Pulling data from a constraint def  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
Responses Re: Pulling data from a constraint def  (Vick Khera <vivek@khera.org>)
List pgsql-general
On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 08:08:31PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> David Fetter <david@fetter.org> writes:
> > On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:33:08AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> >> I'm surprised no one has yet suggested an ENUM type.
>
> > I didn't suggest it because I didn't know about it, but because
> > I've found ENUM to be a trap for the unwary.
>
> > Very seldom are people absolutely certain that they'll have one
> > particular list of things forever.  The list may grow or shrink,
> > or the order may change, and in those cases where the list changes
> > somehow, ENUM causes more problems than it solves.
>
> Well, the inability to change the list of values is certainly an
> unpleasant limitation, but is it so fatal that we should hide the
> feature from people who could possibly use it?  I think not.

It's enough of a foot-gun that I would not even mention it to start
with, except to discuss its problems.

Cheers,
David.
--
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> http://fetter.org/
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