MySQL: return “0” & “1” rather than “false” & “true”

Question

I need to return true or false rather than 1 & 0, using following query:

select if(u.id is null,false         


        

Answer 1

TRUE/FALSE is equivalent to 1/0. It's just a matter of how your front end displays it.

If you need to return the strings "true" and "false" (which I don't suggest - handle that in the display) then you'll have to account for that as well:

IF(IF(u.id ISNULL,false,true) = 1, 'TRUE', 'FALSE')

Answer 2

IF()

You are missing single quotes.

select if(u.id is null,'false','true') status
from user u
limit 10;

Answer 3

MySQL has no boolean datatype, so you need to stick with 0 and 1 on the MySQL side:

select if(u.id is null, 0, 1) status_int
from user u
limit 10

If you prefer a boolean over 0/1 in PHP, you can cast it like this:

$status = (bool) $status_int;

Answer 4

If you want, you can return the values as strings:

SELECT IF(u.id IS NULL, 'false', 'true') as status
FROM user u
LIMIT 10