Persisting Enums in database tables

Question

I have an order which has a status (which in code is an Enum). The question is how to persist this. I could:

1. Persist the string in a field and then map back t

Answer 1

I suppose it depends on where the data will be retrieved. With #3, you could retrieve the data without relying on your .NET front end. But it is also possible for your database table to get out of sync with the enum code.

Option #2 is certainly the most efficient way to do it for storage... but storage is cheap.