[9rx]

> everything should be represent as a relation

> always use a table .. when its a choice

Everything should be represented as relations (sets of tuples) but you should always use tables (multisets of tuples) when possible? That seems a little contradictory.

[systems]

how do you want to represent relations in a DBMS, an enum or a table ?

[9rx]

If said DBMS is relational, with relations.

If said DBMS is tablational, like SQL, then you would have to approximate them using tables and constraints.

If said DBMS is of an another paradigm, like a document database, there may be no way to represent relations within the DBMS.

An enum is a construct that numbers things. There is no way to represent a set of tuples with an integer[1]. I'm not sure where you are trying to go with that one. Inversely, you could hold an enum generated value within a relation. Is that what you mean?

[1] Yes, technically you could break up the individual bits such that they form a set of tuples, but that wouldn't be useful beyond a very narrow use-case and doesn't generalize the way relation implies.

[psychoslave]

with foreign keys?