Set empty value for enum datatype in mysql

Question

I have column 'colors' with data type 'ENUM' in 'profile' table.

The following values are used for 'colors' column and this 'profile' table has more than 1K records.

- Black
- White
- Red
- Orange

enum('Black', 'White', 'Red', 'Orange')

Now I want to set empty value for 'colors' column for some scenarios while inserting records.

So I just tried to add one record with empty value through phpmyadmin and it is working fine

insert into `profile` (user_id, colors) values ('10000', '');

My question is, I don't have empty value for 'colors' column. However, it is working fine.

So shall I continue without altering schema for 'colors' column

(or)

Should I alter the schema as follows
ALTER TABLE `profile` CHANGE `colors` `method` ENUM( '', 'Black', 'White', 'Red', 'Orange' )

Please suggest the best practice.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

somewhat changing my mind from my comments:

NULL - for data absence
blank - for actively picking that as the colour(if that makes sense)

as to how enum works:

It allows blank by default and NULL when your schema allows it.

Ref:https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/enum.html