Representing boolean values 1

[TonyGroves]

Does anybody out there have any advice as to the best way to store a non-null boolean field? I have tried the following, but none are really satisfactory:

ENUM('0','1') NOT NULL
Problems: there are three possible values ('0', '1', ''), and a '0' value in numeric context evaluates to 1!

ENUM('1') NOT NULL
Problem: the default value is '1' (any other specified default is rejected).

ENUM('1')
Problem: there are three possible values (NULL,'1','').

TINYINT(1) UNSIGNED NOT NULL
Problem: it's not obvious that it's a boolean field, and there are 256 possible values.


Until a month ago, my database was using Paradox tables, which support a BOOLEAN type with values FALSE and TRUE; it's a pity MySQL hasn't got something similar.

 

[r937]

use TINYINT with 0,1 values

or CHAR(1) with 'T','F' values

you moved databases once, you may move again, so stay away from the proprietary stuff like ENUM

rudy

http://r937.com/

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