title: Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord: how should I store a state of the object?
body: <p>I have a User model, which has a state. The state can be either of these: ['unverified', 'active', 'deleted']</p>
  
  <p>What is the best way to store the state of the object in the database?</p>
  
  <p>Should I create three boolean fields? That would not make a lot of sense, since I might want to extend the number of states easily and only one state can be 'true' at the same time.</p>
  
  <p>Should I use the <a href="https://github.com/pluginaweek/state_machine" rel="nofollow">state_machine</a> gem just for simple switching of constant values?</p>
  
  <p>Or is there any other common way, best practice, or a simple gem for this kind of job? </p>