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I have a several small entities in my database that I represent as small table with two columns: id and name. Example of such entities: countries, continent.
Should I create an enum type instead, whenever the name of those entities doesn't matter?
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You should use enum types any time you need to represent a fixed set of constants. That includes natural enum types such as the planets in our solar system and data sets where you know all possible values at compile time—for example, the choices on a menu, command line flags, and so on.
It's hard to voice what your actual needs are to a potential partner for fear that they may write you off. Transparency requires over communication. If your communication skills are already not that great, ENM is going to be more of a headache than an opportunity to be your most authentic self.
An ENUM is a string object with a value chosen from a list of permitted values that are enumerated explicitly in the column specification at table creation time.
The enum can be of any numeric data type such as byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, or ulong. However, an enum cannot be a string type.
Hate to answer a question with a question, but it depends. How often do you expect the values to change, and how often do you release code?
Enum types will require a code change. A pure database table will be much easier to change. Enum types are more convenient for coding.
For infrequent releases, or if you often have new/deleted/changed values, use a database table. For static sets of values, or if you release code all the time, use an enum.
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