# Rails boolean and mysql tinyint(1) question? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 23, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-boolean-and-mysql-tinyint-1-question/163686 "2009-03-23T22:58:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vsg)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-boolean-and-mysql-tinyint-1-question/163686/1 "2009-03-23T22:58:54Z")
this may seem silly but i just noticed that if in mysql the column which is a tinyint(1) happens 2 or greater, by a chance of glitch or corruption in the database(i did it manually ofcourse but i am speaking hypothetically), rails would see it as false. but i find that really wrong seeing how in mysql it sees any non-zeroes as true. i really think if it does happen to be any number other than 1 or 0 it should throw an exception saying the data is corrupted or something because rails should only return 0 or 1. am i crazy for thinking like this? also can somebody point to me where in the code it does the tinyint(1) to boolean conversion? or could that possibly be a mysql thing? thx, VSG ---
**Author:** ![vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vsg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-boolean-and-mysql-tinyint-1-question/163686/2 "2009-03-24T14:28:28Z")
ahhhh thank you very much for the explanation. 🙂 what you have said makes perfect sense. but wow i didnt think much about PostgreSQL. i need to read up about them. thx, VSG ---
**Author:** ![vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@vsg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vsg)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-boolean-and-mysql-tinyint-1-question/163686/3 "2009-03-24T10:21:01Z")
On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 2:06 PM, VSG [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > this may seem silly but i just noticed that if in mysql the column > which is a tinyint(1) happens 2 or greater, by a chance of glitch or > corruption in the database(i did it manually ofcourse but i am > speaking hypothetically), rails would see it as false. but i find that > really wrong seeing how in mysql it sees any non-zeroes as true. In regards to MySQL, tinyint( 1 ) represents the following range of values: -128 to 127 Next, MySQL documents says the following which they have been saying for the longest: “We intend to implement full boolean type handling, in accordance with standard SQL, in a future MySQL release.” 5.0 “We intend to implement full boolean type handling, in accordance with standard SQL, in a future MySQL release.” 5.1 “We intend to implement full boolean type handling, in accordance with standard SQL, in a future MySQL release.” 6.0 If you’re requiring better boolean handling, I would recommend switching to PostgreSQL. For example, Valid literal values for the “true” state are: TRUE’t’‘true’‘y’‘yes’‘1’ For the “false” state, the following values can be used: FALSE’f’‘false’‘n’‘no’‘0’ Next, I really don’t want exceptions firing off because I inserted values into the database to test a hypothesis. You can probably do this for every type with MySQL. I would recommend sanitizing and/or validating your input before entering it into the database. > i really think if it does happen to be any number other than 1 or 0 it > should throw an exception saying the data is corrupted or something > because rails should only return 0 or 1. am i crazy for thinking like > this? Again, you should validate your input. If it’s a check box, the state is either 1 or 0 by definition. > also can somebody point to me where in the code it does the tinyint(1) > to boolean conversion? or could that possibly be a mysql thing? In short, Rails is following MySQL definition of what a boolean is and how it is to evaluated and you should be able to find the information in the following file within the Rails source: rails/activerecord/lib/active\_record/connection\_adapters/mysql\_adapter.rb Good luck, -Conrad