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POPattern to handle "dynamic enums" that a user could modify (programming language agnostic)
 

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  1. POPattern to handle "dynamic enums" that a user could modify (programming language agnostic)
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    <p>I always face this problem and every time I face this I find a different solution that doesn't satisfact me. This situation doesn't fit a specific language, but involves a database.</p> <p>Imagine that you have a situation, in a management application, where the user (not a programmer so) can fill a table which rapresents the programming skill level of it's employees. Than he can assign those values to emplyees in emplyees table.</p> <p>So the situation in the database is this one:</p> <pre><code>Table: ProgrammingSkillLevel - ID - Name - Value Table: Employees - ID - SomeUselessData - ProgrammingSkillLevelID </code></pre> <p>In a programming fashion I'll usualy do this as an enum (I'll use C#):</p> <pre><code>enum ProgrammingSkillLevel { Starter = 0, Medium, Advanced, } </code></pre> <p>The advantage of this approach is using <strong>Names</strong> instead of values, infact if we change the enum into something like this:</p> <pre><code>enum ProgrammingSkillLevel { Starter = 0, Medium, Good, Advanced, } </code></pre> <p>We won't have any problems because we use names. In my database approach I'm using IDs to avoid some byte wastes (I know there is enum type, but the user should fill the table, not me!), not names, so the advantage is definitely lost.</p> <p>What approach should I use to allow the user to generate what I call "dynamic enums"? Should I use names?</p> <p>I would like to find a good pattern that will apply to all my projects possibly, because I find this situation very often.</p>
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    1. USFire-Dragon-DoL
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    1. COUsing `enum` in the database obviously isn't an option if the user can change the values, so to the best of my knowledge the table method you demonstrate is the best way. You can still add values or rename a skill level, just not remove a used skill level. The only problem is if you are assigning some business significance to the `ProgrammingSkillLevelID` beyond a foreign key reference. Can you provide a use case where you find this pattern to be insufficient / broken?
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      1. USraistlin0788
    2. COWell, I'm asking if this is the correct pattern too. I really don't know because I "reinvented the wheel" in this way (I mean, I thought this by myself and I don't know if there are better ways). If this is correct, I can remove the question so (sorry for this)
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      1. POPattern to handle "dynamic enums" that a user could modify (programming language agnostic)
      1. USFire-Dragon-DoL
 

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