October 29, 2025
Two decades late to TRUE?
Oracle has adopted BOOLEAN in 23ai and PostgreSQL had it forever
Internet cheers, Postgres fans gloat, and Oracle’s “23ai” name gets roasted
TLDR: Oracle’s 23ai finally adds a true/false data type, ending years of awkward “Y/N” or “0/1” workarounds. The crowd is split between Postgres fans gloating, Oracle users relieved, and everyone roasting the “23ai” branding while debating lock‑in vs. value—important because simpler data means cleaner, faster apps
Oracle finally flipped the switch: 23ai adds a real Boolean type—aka a plain old true/false. After years of stuffing “yes/no” into letters and numbers, devs can stop playing riddles with data. But the applause came with side‑eye. Postgres die‑hards immediately flexed that their open‑source fave has had booleans for decades, while Oracle users did the meme thing: “Congrats on discovering TRUE in 2025.”
The hottest thread? Whether anyone stays with Oracle for love—or just inertia. One commenter mused that many firms stick with “Larry” (Oracle’s founder) out of momentum, not merit, while others argued performance and enterprise features keep the checks flowing. Meanwhile, branding got torched: the “23ai” name was dragged as peak buzzword bingo—“i for internet, g for grid, c for cloud, and now ai?” Even the post itself caught flak as a stealth migration ad, adding to the drama. And yes, a classic forum move appeared: someone pivoted to “Meanwhile, distributed transactions…” just to stir the pot.
Under the snark, it matters: a native Boolean means simpler queries, smaller indexes, and fewer clunky workarounds. Oracle’s late arrival closes an embarrassing gap, and one commenter declared the long‑running Tom Kyte debate “finally concluded.” The internet verdict: necessary fix, hilariously overdue, marketing cringe on the side
Key Points
- •Oracle Database 23ai introduces native BOOLEAN column support.
- •PL/SQL previously supported BOOLEAN, but Oracle tables lacked a native boolean type, prompting VARCHAR2/NUMBER workarounds.
- •Workarounds (e.g., 'Y'/'N', 1/0 with CHECK constraints) add conversions, increase CPU usage, and enlarge indexes.
- •PostgreSQL has supported BOOLEAN for over two decades and stores it efficiently as a single byte.
- •Native BOOLEAN enables simpler queries and faster filtering, illustrated by schema and insert examples comparing Oracle (pre-23ai) and PostgreSQL.