Yes/No Data Type vs. Text

[Guest]

I am creating a database to track class evaluations. Questions are yes or
no. What is the benefit of using "yes/no" data type versus "text" with
dropdowns of yes/no? It seems like the little boxes are too easy to click
accidentally and get bad data. And, it's easy to type a "Y" or "N" and the
tab key to enter data. I'm leaning toward text, but wondering if there's an
added benefit of the "yes/no".

Reporting will need to be a percentage of yes/no for the entire class,
probably about 10-15 records per class.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I am creating a database to track class evaluations. Questions are
yes or no. What is the benefit of using "yes/no" data type versus
"text" with dropdowns of yes/no? It seems like the little boxes are
too easy to click accidentally and get bad data. And, it's easy to
type a "Y" or "N" and the tab key to enter data. I'm leaning toward
text, but wondering if there's an added benefit of the "yes/no".

Reporting will need to be a percentage of yes/no for the entire class,
probably about 10-15 records per class.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

First yes no fields take up far less space than a text field, even a
single character text field. Second they are easy to turn into check boxes
and the automatically limit the response to yes or no.

 

[John Vinson]

I am creating a database to track class evaluations. Questions are yes or
no. What is the benefit of using "yes/no" data type versus "text" with
dropdowns of yes/no? It seems like the little boxes are too easy to click
accidentally and get bad data. And, it's easy to type a "Y" or "N" and the
tab key to enter data. I'm leaning toward text, but wondering if there's an
added benefit of the "yes/no".

Just to add to Joseph's comments, it's perfectly easy to use a Combo
Box ("dropdown") on a Form to fill a yes/no datatype field. The
checkbox is the default but it's not the only option.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[Guest]

Yes/No is a boolean, and uses less memory than a Text field. The little
boxes on your form can be resized, which would make it easier to see if they
are checked or not.

You can specify a text field with a limit of 3 characters, and even specify
in the table that you will only accept "yes" or "no" as input.

For both types, you can specify a default, to automatically input whatever
is the most common data.

It is probably just a matter of which one you prefer to use.

 

[Guest]

So, is there any way to make a yes/no field NOT have the check boxes on a
form? I'd like to be able to enter everything via keyboard (either Y or N)
and not have to mouse through fields.

 

[Van T. Dinh]

You can use a ComboBox with the following settings:

(Data tab)
RowSourceType: Value List
RowSource: -1;"Yes";0;"No"
BoundColumn: 1
LimitToList: Yes
AutoExpand: Yes
DefaultValue: -1 for Yes of 0 for No if you want a default value.

(Format tab)
ColumnCount: 2
ColumnWidths: 0
ListRow: 2

The use can then select "Yes" or "No" or type "Y" or "No" and Access will
select the first row that matches with the type character, i.e. "Yes" or
"No".

 

[Ron2005]

True/false can be toggled on a check box by pressing the space bar.

 

[Guest]

Worked perfectly - thanks! I've worked with combo boxes before, but didn't
realize you could make them work for yes/no.

Now, (and maybe this needs to be posted in the query forum), what is the
easiest way to get a yes/no percentage by class? I've been reading other
posts on counting yes/not, but it seems most of those questions are for only
1 field. I have 8 fields and multiple records that all need to be included
in the final %.

 

[Van T. Dinh]

You're welcome ... Glad you worked it out ...

Yes, I would suggest posting a new thread in Queries ... You have more
potential respondents as new thread than a follow-up question in an already
answered thread.

However (and I haven't seen your Table), it sounds to me that your Table is
not normalized because the implication from your description is that you
have repeated groups of Fields (each group can consist of a single Field).
For a properly normalized, you don't normally have repeated groups / similar
Fields in columns.