bit (Transact-SQL)

An integer data type that can take a value of 1, 0, or NULL.

Remarks

The SQL Server Database Engine optimizes storage of bit columns. If there are 8 or less bit columns in a table, the columns are stored as 1 byte. If there are from 9 up to 16 bit columns, the columns are stored as 2 bytes, and so on.

The string values TRUE and FALSE can be converted to bit values: TRUE is converted to 1 and FALSE is converted to 0.

Converting to bit promotes any nonzero value to 1.

See Also

Reference

ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL)

CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)

CREATE TABLE (Transact-SQL)

Data Types (Transact-SQL)

DECLARE @local\_variable (Transact-SQL)

SET @local\_variable (Transact-SQL)

sys.types (Transact-SQL)

Concepts

Data Type Conversion (Database Engine)