LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 

Share Pointers: Yes/No fields aren’t your friends


By John Ross
Email    print   
February 4, 2009 —  (Page 1 of 2)
Not too long ago, I was working with a client who reminded me of one of my least favorite nuances about SharePoint: Yes/No site columns.

It sounds pretty simple, right? Perhaps you need to make a list to store information about projects. You would create a new list and add the site columns to store the information for the project.  Imagine that one of the requirements is to create a field to answer the question, “Is this an open project?” You review your options and decide that, since this is a “yes” or “no” type question, clearly the Yes/No field type would be the best option for the job. Look at its name, it is so obvious this is the best option, right? Technically it would "work" just fine. But there's an issue.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, you may have used this field type before and be thinking to yourself, “It works just fine. I added the field and it shows up in my view as No." You are correct, you probably selected No in your list item, and when it saved, it will show up as No in your view.

But what actually happened is that behind the scenes, that No has been stored as a 0. If you had said Yes, it would have been stored as a 1. SharePoint knows how to interpret this and will display these 1s and 0s as Yes and No for your convenience.

This can cause confusion if you try to run searches or use things like the Content Query Web Part. For example, a user might create a CQWP that only shows projects that are listed as Open. The user would add the CQWP, set the filter criteria to look at the Yes/No field and set the filter value to Yes. However, no projects would show up in the CQWP, because in order to get the expected results, you would need to specify the filter value as 1, not Yes.



Related Search Term(s): SharePoint

Pages 1 2 


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/33246
 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter



Comments


02/19/2009 08:37:12 AM EST

As a database programmer I would disagree. In fact, I would say that the CQWP is not performing as it should and thus should be changed. In my humble opinion, data fields should reflect, as closely as possible, the datatype stored within. You wouldn't use a varchar field to store timestamps, and you wouldn't use a decimal field to store integers. Why use an xxchar field to store bit values? I would humbly accept someone telling me that I'm wrong. Brian

United StatesBrian


Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
Loading




close
NEXT ARTICLE
Why SharePoint development is so damn special!
Bjorn Furuknap has a few words about the travails associated with getting just the right SharePoint setup Read More...
 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?


 
blogs tab
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
02/07/2012 11:57 AM EST

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
02/04/2012 01:57 PM EST

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST

 
Events calendar tab
Cloud Connect
2/13/2012 to 2/16/2012
Santa Clara
TechWeb

SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conf.
2/26/2012 to 2/29/2012
San Francisco
BZ Media

RSA Conf.
2/27/2012 to 3/2/2012
San Francisco
RSA

IBM Pulse Conf.
3/4/2012 to 3/7/2012
Las Vegas
IBM Tivoli

Game Developer Conf.
3/5/2012 to 3/9/2012
San Francisco
TechWeb