[shubh2336]

I struggled with this dilemma for a long time. Have tried three approaches.

In one approach, enum columns were integer columns in db & we relied on ActiveRecord's (RoR) enum definition to map string values their integer representation. This created issues for our (separate & independent) internal application which was feeding off the read-replica.

In second approach, enums were defined as db-types. This solved most of issues seen with the first approach, but again sql-migration for maintaining the enum-values was another pain-point. Though it was not as painful as i thought, as the enums didn't change very frequently.

In third approach, used a separate table to maintain enum definition. If the column has a wider presence then, additional join might prove relatively costly compared to second approach.

Currently, we follow a mix of last two approaches.