In Rails, how should I implement a Status field for a Tasks app - integer or enum?

Question

For a Rails 3.0 Todo app, I have a Tasks model with a Status field. What\'s the best way to store the Status field data (field type) and still display a human-r

Answer 1

The easiest thing to do would be to just store the actual strings in the field instead of adding another table. Depending on your point of view this is either a bad idea as your database will not be sufficiently normalized or a great idea as your app is now more efficient for being normalized.

If you opt to not do that and to keep the values in a separate table; you need to setup the relationships in the model.

class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
    has_one :status
end

class Status < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :tasks
end 

Then in your view you can reference the value by:

<%= task.status %>