When is it better to store flags as a bitmask rather than using an associative table?

Question

I’m working on an application where users have different permissions to use different features (e.g. Read, Create, Download, Print, Approve, etc.). The list of permissions i

Answer 1

Your queries will run faster using a flags enumeration (bitmask), because you won't need to include a join to the associated table in order to make sense of the value.