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Sarj Standards

SQL · maintainability

no-pg-enum

sql:no-pg-enum

CREATE TYPE ... AS ENUM — use TEXT + CHECK constraint instead.

Code
SARJ103
Default
error
Fix
none
Languages
sql

Why

PostgreSQL enums make ordinary value changes operationally awkward and couple application evolution to database type migrations.

Fix

Store the value as TEXT and constrain the allowed values with an explicit CHECK expression.

Before / after

Executed by this rule’s unit tests.

Before

PostgreSQL enum type

migrations/001_status.sql · focus
CREATE TYPE call_status AS ENUM ('pending', 'active', 'completed');

After

Text column with an explicit value constraint

migrations/001_status.sql · focus
CREATE TABLE call (
    status TEXT NOT NULL CHECK (status IN ('pending', 'active', 'completed'))
);

Limits

  • PostgreSQL dump files are excluded.
  • Generated migrations still report, but diagnostics direct the edit to the owning schema model.