Storing Booleans in SQLite: The Truth Behind the Ones and Zeros

• Storing Booleans as Integers:
  • 0 represents False.
  • 1 represents True.
• Creating a Table: You can use the INTEGER data type when creating a column to store these boolean values. While some database tools might show the column as BOOLEAN for readability, SQLite treats it as a regular integer.
• Inserting and Retrieving Data:
  • Use 1 to insert a true value and 0 for false.
  • When retrieving data, you'll get 1 or 0 which you can interpret as true or false based on your logic.

Here's an example:

CREATE TABLE tasks (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  completed INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0  -- 0 (False) by default
);

INSERT INTO tasks (completed) VALUES (1); -- Inserting a completed task (True)

Things to Consider:

• SQLite also accepts keywords TRUE and FALSE since version 3.23.0, but these are just treated as alternative ways to write 1 and 0.
• You can use a CHECK constraint to enforce that the values in the column are always 0 or 1 for better data integrity.

Creating a Table and Inserting Data:

-- Create a table with a column to store boolean values (represented by integers)
CREATE TABLE users (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  is_active INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0  -- 0 represents False (user inactive by default)
);

-- Insert data with boolean values (1 for True, 0 for False)
INSERT INTO users (id, is_active) VALUES (1, 1);  -- Active user
INSERT INTO users (id, is_active) VALUES (2, 0);  -- Inactive user

Selecting Data based on Boolean Value:

-- Select users who are active (is_active = 1)
SELECT * FROM users WHERE is_active = 1;

Updating Boolean Values:

-- Update a user to be active (is_active = 1)
UPDATE users SET is_active = 1 WHERE id = 2;

Using CHECK Constraint (Optional):

-- Create a table with a CHECK constraint to ensure values are 0 or 1
CREATE TABLE settings (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  show_notifications INTEGER NOT NULL CHECK (show_notifications IN (0, 1))  -- Enforce 0 or 1 only
);

-- Insert data following the constraint (1 for True)
INSERT INTO settings (id, show_notifications) VALUES (1, 1);

Using Text/String:

• You can store "True" or "False" text strings instead of integers.
• This might be useful if your programming language or framework has built-in functions for handling strings as booleans.
• However, this method is generally less efficient in terms of storage space compared to integers.
• Additionally, queries might become slightly more complex as you'd need to compare text values instead of simple integer comparisons.

Example:

CREATE TABLE preferences (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  enabled TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'False'
);

INSERT INTO preferences (enabled) VALUES ('True');

Using Custom Flag Values (for specific scenarios):

• In some cases, you might have more than two boolean states you want to represent.
• For example, a flag indicating completion status could have values like "Pending", "Completed", or "Cancelled".
• Here, you would define a custom data type (like TEXT) and store these distinct string values.
• This method offers more flexibility but requires additional logic in your code to interpret the flag values.

Example (simplified):

CREATE TABLE tasks (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  status TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'Pending'  -- Pending, Completed, Cancelled
);

INSERT INTO tasks (status) VALUES ('Completed');

Choosing the Right Method:

• Storing booleans as integers (0/1) is the recommended approach for most cases due to its efficiency and simplicity.
• Use text strings if your programming language or framework heavily relies on string-based booleans.
• Consider custom flag values only for scenarios with more than two distinct states and where interpreting those states is handled within your application logic.