Indeed, the DRY principle was the underlying motivator for my asking this question -- why do I have this in two places, and how am I going make sure they stay synchronized?

I do have scripts that (re-)construct and (re-)populate the database. I'm really glad you brought that up, because considering them as part of the constellation of things that needs to stay in sync is leading me toward an approach I think I'm comfortable with.

I'm now inclined to the constants in the code and generating the database table based on those same constants that the production code relies on. Of course I'll back that up with tests to make sure that I don't do something dumb like change the constants without reflecting those changes in the database.

Thinking about it that way removes a lot of the unease I was feeling about this data being spread around instead of having one source of Ultimate Truth.

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

        $perlmonks{seattlejohn} = 'John Clyman';

In reply to Re: Re: Synchronizing constants/enums in database and code by seattlejohn
in thread Synchronizing constants/enums in database and code by seattlejohn

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.