Question

Recently I’ve imported a new database to develop on my local machine, however it doesn’t work: the ENUM column only works when the variable is sent without quotation marks. Here’s an example:

mysql.local>select count(*) from psh_products where active = 1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|    72782 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.04 sec)

mysql.local>select count(*) from psh_products where active = '1';
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        0 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

In case you’re wondering about the table structure:

CREATE TABLE `psh_products` (
  `productID` int(12) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `catID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `main_sku` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `sku` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `shortsku` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `upc` varchar(20) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `title` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `description` text COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `quantity` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `buy_now` decimal(11,2) NOT NULL,
  `seller_cost` decimal(11,2) NOT NULL,
  `cdate` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  `codedir` varchar(2) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `code` varchar(32) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `basic_colorID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `manu_colorID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `brandID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `matID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `sizeID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `size_sID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `styleID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `featID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `occID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `widthID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `width_sID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `genderID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `gender_sID` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `hits` int(2) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `active` enum('0','1') COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `tags` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `tmp_img` varchar(250) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `imgact` enum('again','flip','resize','moderated','badimg','badimgm','badimga') COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'moderated',
  `status` enum('new','moderated') COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'moderated',
  `quanflag` enum('0','1') COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `deleted` enum('0','1') COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`productID`),
  KEY `idx_cid` (`catID`),
  KEY `idx_bid` (`brandID`),
  KEY `idx_act` (`active`),
  KEY `idx_act_hits` (`active`,`hits`),
  KEY `idx_wid` (`widthID`),
  KEY `idx_sid` (`sizeID`),
  KEY `idx_styleid` (`styleID`),
  KEY `idx_sku` (`sku`),
  KEY `idx_msku` (`main_sku`),
  KEY `idx_matid` (`matID`),
  KEY `idx_cid_mstyleid` (`catID`,`featID`),
  KEY `idx_shortsku` (`shortsku`),
  KEY `idx_quant` (`quantity`),
  KEY `idx_quanflag` (`quanflag`),
  KEY `idx_hits` (`hits`),
  KEY `idx_act_qua_cat` (`active`,`quantity`,`catID`),
  KEY `idx_act_qua_cat_sho` (`active`,`quantity`,`catID`,`shortsku`),
  KEY `idx_bcolor_id` (`basic_colorID`),
  KEY `idx_mcolor_id` (`manu_colorID`),
  KEY `idx_cdate` (`cdate`),
  KEY `idx_deleted` (`deleted`),
  KEY `occID` (`occID`),
  KEY `idx_fid` (`featID`),
  KEY `width_sID` (`width_sID`,`genderID`,`gender_sID`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=72790 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci

Any ideas are welcome!

Answer 1

Note that when you use a numerical value in a query against an enum data type as in your first query, the numerical value is treated as an index, not as one of the enumerated values.

So, querying

select count(*) from psh_products where active = 1;

is really equivalent to

select count(*) from psh_products where active = '0';

since ‘0’ is the first item (index 1) in the enumeration.

Because of this confusion, the documentation explicilty states “we strongly recommend that you do not use numbers as enumeration values.”