Boolean Values in SQL INSERT Statements

Boolean Conversion Across Dialects

JSON booleans (true and false) map to different SQL representations depending on the database dialect. The bulk INSERT tool handles these differences automatically.

Dialect Comparison

Dialect	JSON true	JSON false	Column Type
PostgreSQL	TRUE	FALSE	BOOLEAN
MySQL	TRUE	FALSE	TINYINT(1)
SQLite	TRUE	FALSE	BOOLEAN
SQL Server	TRUE	FALSE	BIT

PostgreSQL Example

INSERT INTO "features" ("id", "name", "is_enabled", "is_beta")
VALUES
  (1, 'Dark Mode', TRUE, FALSE),
  (2, 'API v2', TRUE, TRUE),
  (3, 'Webhooks', FALSE, FALSE);

MySQL Example (with CREATE TABLE)

CREATE TABLE \`features\` (
  \`id\` INTEGER NOT NULL,
  \`name\` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  \`is_enabled\` TINYINT(1) NOT NULL,
  \`is_beta\` TINYINT(1) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO \`features\` (\`id\`, \`name\`, \`is_enabled\`, \`is_beta\`)
VALUES
  (1, 'Dark Mode', TRUE, FALSE),
  (2, 'API v2', TRUE, TRUE);

Edge Case: Mixed Types

If a JSON key has both boolean and integer values across different objects, the tool infers INTEGER as the column type (since booleans can be represented as 0/1). This is the conservative choice that works across all dialects.

SQL Server BIT Type

SQL Server's BIT type is semantically equivalent to a boolean but is technically a numeric type that accepts 0 and 1. The INSERT values use TRUE/FALSE which SQL Server accepts as aliases.