Recently someone posted a question where they couldn’t quite figure out how to construct a predicate based on a bit parameter. They tried to write a procedure like this, which wouldn’t parse, of course: I explained that you can’t have control-of-flow inside a SQL statement like that, at least not in T-SQL. And that the … Read more
The BIT data type is an awkward fit for a SQL database. It doesn't have just two values, and it can do unexpected things in expressions. What is worse, it is a flag rather than a predicate, and so its overuse, along with bit masks, is a prime candidate for being listed as a 'SQL Code Smell'. Joe Celko makes the case.
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