Login functionality with enum or bool

Question

I'm re-designing the login functionality for our application, and the first thing I came across is something a previous developer wrote a while back. There's a simple Login class that just contains 2 strings, username and password, and an enum LoginStatus:

public enum LoginStatus
{
    LoggedIn,
    LoggedOut
}

I'm thinking it would be better to just use a bool here, but maybe there's something more here that I'm not understanding?

In my opinion, it is slower and more confusing to read:

if (login.LoginStatus == LoginStatus.LoggedIn) 
{
    ...
}

It would seem a lot better to just write:

if (login.loggedIn) { ... }

or

if (!login.loggedIn) { ... }

I already tested it in my branch and changed everything accordingly. Everything still works normally, so the new Login class looks like this:

public class Login
{
    public string username { get; set; }
    public string password { get; set; }
    public bool loggedIn { get; set; }
}

Is there any specific reason one would want to use enum over bool in this instance? Performance, readability, ease of future expansions, or any other overhead my young mind may not be seeing?

Answer 1

I find enums are ofte easier to use then booleans. At some point you probably will want to search for users so consider this:

User FindUserByStatus(LoginStatus status)

and its usage

userSearch.FindUserByStatus(LoginStatus.LoggedIn)

---

vs

User FindUserByStatus(bool loginStatus)

and its usage

userSearch.FindUserByStatus(true);

---

but even with the enum you could do

if (login) { .. }

by adding an implicit cast to the Login

public static implicit operator bool(Login login) => login.Status == LoginStatus.LoggedIn;

Answer 2

I would not use either. A boolean is too restrictive, and not readable. I enum is also too restrictive. Java enums are fine, but C# enums are bad OO, and under-powered.

Being logged in is not a simple as it may seem. Are you Identified? Are you identified, and authenticated? Are you identified, authenticated, and authorized? This term is ambiguous.

If you want the easiest and simplest solution, then use bool, but not from a LoggedIn property; maybe, an IsAuthorized property?

Still, you would do best to replace the enum with an full-fledged class (this matches your current terminology, but as I said above, it is ambiguous):

class LoginStatus
{
     private LoginStatus(string statusName) { StatusName = statusName; }
     public string StatusName { get; private set }
     public static readonly LoginStatus NOT_LOGGED_IN = new LoginStatus("Not Logged In");
     public static readonly LoginStatus LOGGED_IN = new LoginStatus("Logged In");
}

My life has been made much easier since I have stopped using C# enums, they really do cause more harm than good. In this situation, using an enum add more code to maintain over just using bool, but without the flexibility of using a full class.