JPA Enum ORDINAL vs STRING

Question

It\'s possible to define enumerations in JPA using either

@Enumerated(EnumType.ORDINAL)

or

@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
         


        

Answer 1

Are you really sure that a human readable database is what you need? Storing string value is a waste of space. The only compromise with readability could be use @Enumerated(STRING) and map database column as ENUM (if you are using mysql... I presume other dbms have something similar) but it's a real pain when you have to change enum names.