Re: Data type "indicator" - What about boolean?

Posted by Andrew Sykes on Jul 07, 2006; 9:37am
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Data-type-indicator-What-about-boolean-tp140544p140548.html

Fabian,

"indicator" is used as a boolean, and you are correct, not all DBs
support Boolean, but they all support char, hence the use of the Y/N
format.

- Andrew

On Fri, 2006-07-07 at 10:03 +0200, Fabian Gorsler wrote:

> Hi,
>
> a new day, a new question. ;)
>
> First of all: Should the data type "indicator" be interpreted as the
> good old diode, glowing up to indicate s.o. s.th. special, or perhaps as
> a kind of error level, like the DEFCONs with multiple meanings for each
> level?
>
> I for myself interpret it as a glowing diode and I'm wondering about the
> SQL-type mapped to indicator: It's CHAR(1), but not BOOLEAN like (some)
> databases would understand. Is there any background why CHAR(1) is used?
>
> I know that MySQL didn't/doesn't(?) support BOOLEAN as type (for a long
> time), but RDBMS like Postgres or Oracle support it and it's even
> documented in the SQL-standard (Postgres docs say this.). Are there
> perhaps any OFBiz-internal things which could cause serious problems
> when using BOOLEAN?
>
> Additionally I should say I'm developing on a Postgres-DB which will
> changed to a Oracle-DB when the software will be productively used.
>
> TIA
>
> Best regards,
>      Fabian.

--
Kind Regards
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd
http://www.sykesdevelopment.com