Benefit to "yes/no" fields?

Need help Database
1

Hi there, I’m wondering if there are any benefits to using a “yes/no” table field? I’m assuming there is a performance increase? I seem to be having some weird issues using yes/no with Instant Calculator (the plugin) so I’m thinking about just using a text field and manually entering appropriate values through workflows to accomplish the same thing.

Anyway, I can’t seem to track down any info about yes/no in the reference- just wondering what their intended application is.

Thanks!

2

Could you elaborate on the type of issues you’re encountering with the Instant Calculator plugin?

At a general level, yes / no (boolean) fields are good for indicating whether something is true or if it is false. For example:

  • Does the current user have admin credentials? You may have the field is_admin = yes
  • Has the current order been fulfilled? … is_completed = yes
  • Is this record marked as “spam” by the user … is_spam = yes

When using yes / no fields, it’s a good idea to also set default values for the data type. (For example, the is_admin field would always have a default value of “no” (false).

A boolean field is either true or not true. So, it can only evaluate to true or false. This has benefits for quickly tabulating and mitigates some potential error that a text input could cause (for example, say you have the text field “user_type” and the values are general and administrator. You may have a workflow or privacy rule that restricts a user’s access unless user_type = administrator. But say you accidentally program “admin” as the text field update, which is different than “administrator”. Then the rule would not work correctly.

It varies greatly by situation, but I tend to prefer having several defined boolean values versus a multi-use text field.

Dan (creator of LearnTo - 125+ Bubble tutorials + on-demand coaching ).

3

Hey, thanks for the reply Dan.

I so, I’ve (mostly) ruled out yes/no causing the error with Instant Calculator. Looks like I was trying to return a value that I was expecting to be zero but comes back as null and breaks the equation. :confused:

4

Happy to help.

If you’re trying to utilize a yes/no field as part of an equation, I believe you could turn it into a number (ie. yes = 1, no = 0), within this calculation using the :formatted as number function. (Haven’t directly experimented with this plugin, so offering what comes to mind).