Specifying a mySQL ENUM in a Django model

Question

How do I go about specifying and using an ENUM in a Django model?

Answer 1

Django 3.0 has built-in support for Enums

From the documentation:

from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _

class Student(models.Model):

    class YearInSchool(models.TextChoices):
        FRESHMAN = 'FR', _('Freshman')
        SOPHOMORE = 'SO', _('Sophomore')
        JUNIOR = 'JR', _('Junior')
        SENIOR = 'SR', _('Senior')
        GRADUATE = 'GR', _('Graduate')

    year_in_school = models.CharField(
        max_length=2,
        choices=YearInSchool.choices,
        default=YearInSchool.FRESHMAN,
    )

Now, be aware that it does not enforce the choices at a database level this is Python only construct. If you want to also enforce those value at the database you could combine that with database constraints:

class Student(models.Model):
    ...

    class Meta:
        constraints = [
            CheckConstraint(
                check=Q(year_in_school__in=YearInSchool.values),
                name="valid_year_in_school")
        ]