use enum or dictionary?

Question

I have a database with an status field that can keep the following values:

0 Registrado
1 Activo
2 Finalizado
3 Anticipado
4 Reestructurado

Of course I just keep the number in a tinyint datatype in my database. Then I need to query that table but the GUI must show string value and not numeric value.

What is the best way to achieve it? Should I use a Enum datatype or dictionary ? What would the advantages of using one over the other?

In addition, results will be shown in a datagrid

Dictionary looks an awful lot like string[] semantics for now... — Tetsujin no Oni, Jan 25 '12 at 18:28
if using entity framework I would use an entity, no enum and no dictionary. so that if there is a new entry in that table you do not need to rebuild anything... — Davide Piras, Jan 25 '12 at 18:28
Please don't prefix your titles with "C#" and such. That's what the tags are for. — John Saunders, Jan 25 '12 at 18:29
@DavidePiras in fact i'm using the entity framework, could you explain me a little bit how the entity would work? — Jorge Zapata, Jan 25 '12 at 18:33

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 25 '12 at 18:28

The approach I would take is

Map the tinyint values into an enum
Create a static Dictionary<TheEnumType, string> which maps the values to the user string

For example

public enum Names {
  Registrado = 0,
  Activo = 1,
  Finalizado = 2,
  Anticipado = 3,
  Reestructurado = 4
}

Now you can easily convert between the DB value and the appropriate enum

int theDbValue = ...;
Names name = (Names)theDbValue;

Building up the mapping between the names can now be easily done with a Dictionary<Names, string>.

var map = new Dictionary<Names, string>();
map[Names.Registrado] = "...";
map[Names.Activo] = "...";
// etc ...

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

2

If we are talking about a limited amount of choices i would suggest enums since performance wise they are a lot better. A couple of similar questions that could help

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

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answered Jan 25 '12 at 18:30

Kypros

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use enum or dictionary?

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