Question

I’m making a form with radio buttons (see http://jsfiddle.net/mjmitche/3c6Mc/) and users are submitting data mostly through radio buttons. What “type” will the values for the radio buttons have to be/should they be in the mysql table?

The fields advocacy, drafting, interview etc will all be either “pass” or “fail” on the webform, so what do I do in the database?

CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
    `id` int(5) NOT NULL auto_increment,  
    `date` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,  
    `instructor` varchar(25) NOT NULL ,  
    `secretmessage` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', 
    `advocacy`     NOT NULL, 
    `drafting`     NOT NULL, 
    `interview`
    `letter`
    `solicitor`
    `barrister`
    PRIMARY KEY (`id`)  
);

Boolean

If I use a Boolean, do I set the values for Pass and Fail to 1 and 0?

    <tr>  

        <td><label>Interview</label></td>  
        <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="1" /> Pass</td>
        <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="0" /> Fail</td>  
    </tr>

with this mysql?

    CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
   `interview` BOOLEAN NOT NULL, 

TinyINT

If I use a TinyInt, do I also set the value of Pass and Fail to 1 and 0?

             <tr>  

                <td><label>Interview</label></td>  
                <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="1" /> Pass</td>
                <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="0" /> Fail</td>  
            </tr>


    CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
   `interview` TINYINT NOT NULL, 

ENUM

If I use enum, do I set the value to “pass” and “fail” and then use the same names in the database with enum?

 <td><label>Interview</label></td>  
  <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="pass" /> Pass</td>
 <td><input type="radio" name="interview" value="fail" /> Fail</td>  
</tr>

Mysql

            CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
           `interview` enum('pass', 'fail') NOT NULL, 

Answer 1

ENUM may be behave unexpectedly if inserting integer values.

Example:

CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
`interview` enum('pass', 'fail') NOT NULL);

INSERT INTO shoutbox (0); // this would be equivalent to an empty ENUM value ('')
INSERT INTO shoutbox (1); // represents 'pass', 2 represents 'fail'
INSERT INTO shoutbox ('pass'); // works as expected, same for 'fail'.

If you used ENUM, it would be best to validate the radio input value so that no empty or invalid strings are passed.

$interview = in_array($_POST['interview'], array('pass', 'fail')) ? $_POST['interview'] : 'fail';

I recommend using an BOOLEAN or TINYINT and validating the radio input value by using intval();

CREATE TABLE `shoutbox`(  
`interview` tinyint(1) NOT NULL);

php:

$interview = intval($_POST['interview']); // sets interview to 0 or 1
// "insert into shoutbox($interview);"