Question

While creating a table I have to use the datatype SET, but it looks like there is no datatype SET in SQL Server. I was looking on the Microsoft’s website and those are the datatypes that it supports: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187752.aspx

Which one should I use to replace the SET?

I have used SET in MySQL database like this:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `configurations` (
`index` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`user_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`configDuration` int(5) NOT NULL,
`configDurationPerspective` set('list_this_day','list_remaining') NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`index`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

And then when I insert data into the table it looks like this:

INSERT INTO 'configurations' (index, user_id, configDuration, configDurationPerspective) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 'list_this_day');

Never mind the quotes. Something messed up while pasting the code.

Now I want to do the same thing, but in SQL Server.

Answer 1

You’d either have to use separate bit fields (one column with bit datatype per value) or you’d pack the values into a column with a integer datatype. If you’d use integer you’d have to use t-sql bitwise operators to read and write the values.

If you use bitwise operators you’ll only get one column
The create table statement should look like this:

CREATE TABLE configurations(
[index] int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
user_id int NOT NULL,
configDuration int  NOT NULL,
configDurationPerspective int NOT NULL,
)

And then you’d have to insert values that are possible to bitmask like 1,2,4,8,16,32 into configDurationPerspective

INSERT INTO 'configurations' (index, user_id, configDuration, configDurationPerspective) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 'list_this_day');

would translate to

INSERT INTO 'configurations' (index, user_id, configDuration, configDurationPerspective) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 1);

And

INSERT INTO 'configurations' (index, user_id, configDuration, configDurationPerspective) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 'list_remaining');

would translate to

INSERT INTO 'configurations' (index, user_id, configDuration, configDurationPerspective) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 2);

and selecting could look like:

select  [index], configDuration,
case when configDurationPerspective & 1 > 0 then 'list_this_day' else '' end
 + case when configDurationPerspective & 2 > 0 then 'list_remaining' else '' end as configDurationPerspective
 from configurations