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GeneralRe: Veterans Day Pin
Greg Utas11-Nov-21 8:03
professionalGreg Utas11-Nov-21 8:03 
GeneralRe: Veterans Day Pin
jeron111-Nov-21 9:09
jeron111-Nov-21 9:09 
GeneralRe: Veterans Day Pin
Slow Eddie12-Nov-21 1:49
professionalSlow Eddie12-Nov-21 1:49 
GeneralI know, but I'm old... Pin
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter11-Nov-21 2:58
professionalKornfeld Eliyahu Peter11-Nov-21 2:58 
GeneralRe: I know, but I'm old... Pin
Richard MacCutchan11-Nov-21 3:07
mveRichard MacCutchan11-Nov-21 3:07 
GeneralRe: I know, but I'm old... Pin
pkfox11-Nov-21 4:29
professionalpkfox11-Nov-21 4:29 
GeneralRe: I know, but I'm old... Pin
Slow Eddie12-Nov-21 1:50
professionalSlow Eddie12-Nov-21 1:50 
GeneralI know I'm old ... Pin
CHill6011-Nov-21 2:37
mveCHill6011-Nov-21 2:37 
.. and crotchety and lots of other things but there some things I'm not sure that I want to understand. I'm no longer brave enough to ask "Why?"

There was a conversation in QA yesterday (Programming, data storage, database[^]) about storing numeric IDs as strings. Drives me to distraction and I'm obviously not alone

Today I find a column at work called ACTV_IND. Hm, thinks I, could this column contain an indicator to state whether or not this item is currently "Active".

Well, yes it does.

Except instead of an "indicator" it contains the words "Yes" or "No".

I was sort of expecting a char Y or N, or even a bit 1 or 0. But it's "Yes" or "No" .This in a database that has otherwise been normalized to death (oh yeah, there are max 5 "type" of record and each type is max 3 chars - but that has been normalized away into a separate table). At a site where they are talking about destroying historical data "to save storage space".

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I noticed the table schema has this as varchar(15). That's longer than the longest word I've ever heard of for "Yes"! (Urdu by the way - Dschii haan, except it wouldn't be in that alphabet, but there again varchar not nvarchar)

I don't know what made me do it, perhaps some innate sadomasochistic streak, but I checked out the numeric Ids while I was there ... yep, they're all varchar(15) as well.

Sigh | :sigh:

I'm just going to quietly write my query, get the data and get outta here.
GeneralRe: I know I'm old ... Pin
honey the codewitch11-Nov-21 4:35
mvahoney the codewitch11-Nov-21 4:35 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old ... Pin
lmoelleb11-Nov-21 5:03
lmoelleb11-Nov-21 5:03 
JokeRe: I know I'm old ... Pin
DerekT-P11-Nov-21 6:14
professionalDerekT-P11-Nov-21 6:14 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old ... Pin
Luc Pattyn11-Nov-21 14:10
sitebuilderLuc Pattyn11-Nov-21 14:10 
GeneralI know I'm old .... but Pin
Slow Eddie11-Nov-21 1:50
professionalSlow Eddie11-Nov-21 1:50 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
theoldfool11-Nov-21 1:56
professionaltheoldfool11-Nov-21 1:56 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
dandy7211-Nov-21 2:34
dandy7211-Nov-21 2:34 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
Ron Anders11-Nov-21 2:30
Ron Anders11-Nov-21 2:30 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
Matias Lopez11-Nov-21 2:31
Matias Lopez11-Nov-21 2:31 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 2:58
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 2:58 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
Marc Clifton11-Nov-21 2:35
mvaMarc Clifton11-Nov-21 2:35 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
PIEBALDconsult11-Nov-21 3:42
mvePIEBALDconsult11-Nov-21 3:42 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 2:47
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 2:47 
JokeRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
den2k8811-Nov-21 3:09
professionalden2k8811-Nov-21 3:09 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 4:35
CodeWraith11-Nov-21 4:35 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
Daniel Pfeffer11-Nov-21 3:45
professionalDaniel Pfeffer11-Nov-21 3:45 
GeneralRe: I know I'm old .... but Pin
Rage11-Nov-21 3:08
professionalRage11-Nov-21 3:08 

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