Ah, I thought you were referring to an integer taking the place of an enum, which is a terrible practice that for some reason is more common than you'd think. I

Ah, I thought you were referring to an integer taking the place of an enum, which is a terrible practice that for some reason is more common than you'd think. I'm not too sure what you mean by 'micro-optimization' here, these kind of languages are so high level that the term 'optimisation' really doesn't apply. Regarding the JSON serialisation point: The internal representation of an enumerated type would probably depend on the needs of its serialisation medium. If it's going in a binary file, then an integer is probably your best bet. If it's going into a database, you might not have that limitation. This all depends on the scenario. As long as you're referencing the enum by its proper handle, that is.