jtaylor-sfdc
commented
10 years ago One way we can implement this in a backward compatible manner:
- use 2 to represent null, 3 to represent false, and 4 to represent true
- on deserialization, map 0 to 3 and 1 to 4
- add a PDataType.isNullable() method that defaults to !PDataType.isFixedWidth(), except with BOOLEAN overriding it to return true.
- modify checks of !PDataType.isFixedWidth() to PDataType.isNullable()
As we support BOOLEAN as a first-class citizen data type, we should have a way to serialize/deserialize a NULL value. This will prevent us from having to coerce it back and forth to a DECIMAL when indexed and allow it to be used as a nullable column anywhere in the primary key constraint. We'd need to add a PDataType.isNullable() instead of relying on PDataType.isFixedWidth() to infer whether a nullable column is allowed in the middle of a primary key constraint.