Data Types in SQL Server
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Topic: Data Types in SQL Server
Posted By: Misty
Subject: Data Types in SQL Server
Date Posted: 01 October 2004 at 1:28am
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What kind of data type should I use in a SQL Server database for the following: 1.) Yes/No field 2.) Memo field
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Replies:
Posted By: Mart
Date Posted: 01 October 2004 at 2:51am
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A boolean (Yes/No or True/False) can be a bit field. Then when you get
the field with your asp.net page you need to use CBool() e.g. Dim MyBoolean As Boolean = CBool(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item("MyBoolean")) because bits are stored as 1's and 0's. For a memo field you can either use a varchar with a high length (that way you can compare and search the contents of the field) or you could use a Text field which has some massive length (but you can't compare or search the field)... It depends on what you want to do really and how big you want the field to be. |
Posted By: theSCIENTIST
Date Posted: 01 October 2004 at 2:57am
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For Yes/No and for all boolean types I use the bit type which will store (1/0) and can be checked against True/False.
Memo, use text type, then give it a lenght as needed, 8 for long memos and give it 16 for very long memos. ------------- :: http://www.mylittlehost.com/ - www.mylittlehost.com |
Posted By: michael
Date Posted: 01 October 2004 at 9:32am
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DOn't know where you heard that. Text can hold 2{30}-1 characters, there is only one text type. The data size is always 16 and represents just a pointer to the external (not stored in the table) 8KB pages of text data. ------------- http://baumannphoto.com" rel="nofollow - Blog | http://mpgtracker.com" rel="nofollow - MPG Tracker |
Posted By: theSCIENTIST
Date Posted: 01 October 2004 at 4:04pm
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You are right, text always looked wierd to me now I know why, funny I used text with sizes <> 16, maybe some old SQL server version, not sure, I also prefer varchar's, more easily digestable.
So what would be the perfect scenario to use text types? Thx. ------------- :: http://www.mylittlehost.com/ - www.mylittlehost.com |
Posted By: michael
Date Posted: 02 October 2004 at 12:47pm
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text are generally blob fields. varchar is limited to 8000 charachters so whenever you need to store more, you'll go with text. ------------- http://baumannphoto.com" rel="nofollow - Blog | http://mpgtracker.com" rel="nofollow - MPG Tracker |
Posted By: Misty
Date Posted: 14 October 2004 at 7:18pm
| I am trying to figure out something about the datatype, bit. Is 0 actually equal to true? Is 1 actually equal to false? |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 14 October 2004 at 7:57pm
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I think it's the other way round. Test it in your application is probably the best way to find out. Heres a good article on data types in SQL Server: http://www.sql-server-performance.com/datatypes.asp Varchar is a good one to use if you are under 8,000 characters as it only takes up the space it uses (it doesn't take 8,000 character spaces up for each record if you only store 3 characters) |
Posted By: Misty
Date Posted: 14 October 2004 at 9:13pm
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Gullanian, Thank you for the link to the SQL Server article! I tested my ASP.net Page. I found out that when I put the code for displaying the email addresses where "ShowEmail" was False, the web page displayed the email addresses that had the "ShowEmail" field of 1. I thought that 0 was false and 1 was true too. |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 14 October 2004 at 10:57pm
There you go then  Best way to know the results in your environment is to test it in your environment. |
Posted By: Misty
Date Posted: 23 October 2004 at 5:10pm
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I need to correct a mistake that I made in an earlier posting.
I found out that 0 is actually false and 1 is true. |
Misty wrote: