bit (Transact-SQL)
Applies to:
SQL Server
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric
Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric
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 fewer 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 bit data type can be used to store Boolean values. 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
.
The bit data type supports the COUNT function. However, other standard aggregate functions, like SUM
, AVG
, MIN
, and MAX
, don't directly support the bit data type.