Using Boolean Data Type in Oracle Database - Performance Study

Boolean data type was unavailable in Oracle Database for a long time, resulting in many workarounds negatively influencing the data retrieval and overall processing performance. In April 2023, Oracle Database version 23c was released by offering Boolean data types for SQL use. This paper deals with the performance study, modeling, and representation impacts. It summarizes existing solutions focusing on various data types, followed by integrity management by forming three-valued logic if undefined values can be present. Besides, this paper highlights implicit conversions and indexing strategies for the Boolean data type or its variants. Thus, it aims at defining a methodology to ensure performance in terms of processing time, indexing, and storage demands.