Thread: Enumerated data type

Anand Raman writes:

> Is there anything equivalent to the enumerated data types in
> postgresql..

You might find that strings with check constraints will do the job, e.g.

create table my_tbl (
 ...
 color text check color in ('blue', 'green', 'white'),
 ...
);


--
Peter Eisentraut                  Sernanders väg 10:115
peter_e@gmx.net                   75262 Uppsala
http://yi.org/peter-e/            Sweden

On Tue, 2 May 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

> Anand Raman writes:
>
> > Is there anything equivalent to the enumerated data types in
> > postgresql..
>
> You might find that strings with check constraints will do the job, e.g.
>
> create table my_tbl (
>  ...
>  color text check color in ('blue', 'green', 'white'),
>  ...
> );
>

For anything much more than this, I'd just create a table with all the
possible values in it, each with a unique identifier, and then use the
identifier in my_tbl. Then you can control the possible values more
easily.

--
Tom Cook - Software Engineer

"Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes; that way,
when you criticize him, you're a mile away and have his shoes."
    - A froggy bloke on a news group.

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On Tue, 02 May 2000, Tom Cook wrote:
> On Tue, 2 May 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>
> > Anand Raman writes:
> >
> > > Is there anything equivalent to the enumerated data types in
> > > postgresql..
> >
> > You might find that strings with check constraints will do the job, e.g.
> >
> > create table my_tbl (
> >  ...
> >  color text check color in ('blue', 'green', 'white'),
> >  ...
> > );
> >
>
> For anything much more than this, I'd just create a table with all the
> possible values in it, each with a unique identifier, and then use the
> identifier in my_tbl. Then you can control the possible values more
> easily.
>
> --
> Tom Cook - Software Engineer

Yup, you could create a special table that contains a column of the allowed
values and make it with a primary key.  In your table where you want the enum,
make that column REFERENCES the special table you setup.  That will constrain
it to only allow values of the primary key.