How to store enum as string to database in rails

Question

How do I create a migration in ruby where the default is a string rather than an Integer, I want to store enum into the database, but I do not want to store it as Integer, because then it does not make sense to another application that wants to use the same table. How do I do default: "female" instead of default:0

class AddSexToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration   def change     add_column :users, :sex, :integer, default: 0   end end class User < ActiveRecord::Base   enum sex: [:female, :male]   has_secure_password end 

I

Answer 1

Reading the enum documentation, you can see Rails use the value index of the Array explained as:

Note that when an Array is used, the implicit mapping from the values to database integers is derived from the order the values appear in the array.

But it is also stated that you can use a Hash:

it's also possible to explicitly map the relation between attribute and database integer with a Hash.

With the example:

class Conversation < ActiveRecord::Base     enum status: { active: 0, archived: 1 }   end 

So I tested using Rails 4.2.4 and sqlite3 and created an User class with a string type for sex type and a Hash in the enum with string values(I am using fem and mal values to differ from female and male):

Migration:

class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration   def change     create_table :users do |t|       t.string :sex, default: 'fem'     end   end end   

Model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base   enum sex: { female: 'fem', male: 'mal' } end 

And in console:

u = User.new #=>  #<User id: nil, sex: "fem"> u.male? #=> false u.female? #=> true u.sex #=> "female" u[:sex] #=> "fem" u.male! # INSERT transaction... u.sex #=> "male" u[:sex] #=> "mal"