Should I use 0/1 or True/False boolean? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here: Which MySQL data type to use for storing boolean values (13 answers) 开发者_JAVA技巧 Closed 7 years ago.

0/1 can be flexible and can add options such as "2, 3, 4" in the future.

Does TINYINT in MySQL take up more space than boolean?

Personally, I use 0 and 1 for everything.

You can answer this question in the context of regular programming (or MySQL, whichever you like).

---

Any good database system worth its salt will convert boolean to and from something appropriate for the database, and using an actual boolean type makes programming against it much nicer.

---

Boolean is more portable across different databases (e.g. PostgreSQL). Tinyint is more flexible, can be upgraded to something Enum-like.

The final choice should be yours. But anywhere except SQL I would definitely recommend explicit Booleans/Enums over "magic numbers", for clarity and type safety.

---

When I am absolutely sure that I will need true/false for a value, I will use the boolean type in my code. For other cases, often starting with 0/1 is convenient because 0 can act as a return code for success and any other positive or negative integers can define various error conditions.

---

If you're making a true/false decision in any language, if your language supports boolean, use it.

Using 0/1 to support the "extra numbers" probably means your field is not a decision, and may be or become multiple choices.