Re: The BOOLEAN data type

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_golden.net>
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2003 02:37:25 -0500
Message-ID: <uywja.200$yM7.12703846_at_mantis.golden.net>


"Paul" <paul_at_not.a.chance.ie> wrote in message news:MPG.18f7b403e8268d469896b5_at_news1.eircom.net...
>
> bbadour_at_golden.net says...
>
> > > I'm confused here! Why is it bad?
>
> > > I'm working on a project where we store people's gender - what's wrong
> > > with using a boolean for that?
>
> > Because gender is neither true nor false.
>
> What about a field HasYChromosome - and please don't tell me about
> various chromosomal disorders that can lead to attributes of maleness
> despite having no Y chromosome or vice versa - this has little relevance
> in the real world.

HasYChromosome is properly boolean. One must presume that the business rules do not need to record multiple Y chromosomes, and that the application cares more about what the chromosomes say than what the sexual organs say--or what the person says, for that matter. Someone transgendered from female to male might not have a Y chromosome, but might use the mens room.

> > It is male, female, neuter,
> > partially transgendered, gender reassigned male to female, gender
reassigned
> > female to male, unknown etc.
>
> This is essentially meaningless in the real world - "You've just had a
> baby - boy or girl?" - not "Is it male, female, partially transgendered,
> gender reassigned male to female, gender reassigned female to male,
> unknown etc."

You presume much. I would argue that those struggling with the legal and social ramifications of transgender surgery--in the real world--would disagree with your broad generality.

> Knowing the sex of the person in the case of an app I'm working on at
> the moment is important, since it is potentially necessary for possible
> dormitory sleeping arrangements - i.e. the boys sleep in dorms with
> other boys and vice versa.

Where do you put the intersexed children? At 1:1000 to 1:500, your application will probably have to deal with the situation eventually: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aissg/intersexq&a.htm

Where do you put the sexually aggressive abuse survivors? http://www.csun.edu/~psy453/expose_y.htm

What does the implication function mean for gender?

> > I suggest you choose an appropriate domain that represents the values of
> > interest and define the appropriate operations for the domain. The
boolean
> > domain has two distinct values neither of which are male or female, and
it
> > has operations such as conjunction and implication that have no meaning
for
> > gender.
>
> What about a table which stores bills? Paid or unpaid - that's a fairly
> simple and important example of a boolean.

I agree, and I would observe that the boolean functions actually have some meaning for "paid" as in the following boolean expression: (invoiced and not paid) Received on Sat Apr 05 2003 - 09:37:25 CEST

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