Glossary · Phase 7 · Software engineering

Enum

Also written: enums

A fixed set of allowed values, such as an order status of pending, paid or shipped.

An enum is the multiple-choice box on that form. It lists the only allowed values for something, like an order's status. Status("paid") turns text into the enum and raises ValueError for anything not on the list. So "payed" gets caught instead of quietly flowing through your system.
From the lesson Types and data modeling

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Types and data modeling · Type hints, dataclasses and checking data at the edges of a program. About 35 minutes.

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Other terms from the same lesson

dataclass: A Python class declared by listing its typed fields; Python writes the setup code for you.
type hint: A note in the code saying what type a value should be, like price: float. Tools check hints; Python doesn't enforce them.

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