Is it safe to use a custom value for users.status column

Question

Currently status column can have only 2 values:

• 0 - inactive
• 1 - active

I need to add a new status for the user: temporarily inactive. Will it be safe if I use status = 2 for it?

Answer 1

long story short: no, never

why: user->status is deep bound into drupal core, so in order to handle status=2 you will have to hack the core

there are alternatives: you could use another field or expand user entity

Answer 2

Why would you need to?

You can attach a boolean or numeric field to the user entity.

Navigate to Admin -> Configuration -> Accounts -> Add Field.