Re: boolean types and portability

From: Neil Zanella <nzanella_at_cs.mun.ca>
Date: 22 Mar 2002 15:23:08 -0800
Message-ID: <b68d2f19.0203221523.6d944594@posting.google.com>

damorgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<3C9B67D4.3DEA46CB_at_exesolutions.com>...
> INT and SMALLINT are just subtypes of NUMBER. Just use NUMBER(1).
>
> Daniel Morgan

The problem with NUMBER and NUMBER(1) is they are not standard SQL types. As such they are not supported by other databases such as postgresql which gives the following errors:

# CREATE TABLE T (foo NUMBER(1));
ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "(" # CREATE TABLE T (foo NUMBER);
ERROR: Unable to locate type name 'number' in catalog #

This is why I am using INTEGER instead.
A good application program should work with as wide a variety of databases as possible in order to give users flexibility.

Thanks,

Neil Received on Fri Mar 22 2002 - 17:23:08 CST