Rails - May 2006 - Storing a NULL value from a radio_button

Hi, I''ve a boolean database field (tinyint(1)) wich allows nulls.

Then, I''ve something like this:
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',"NULL")
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',true)
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',false)

The problem is with the 1st radio_button, it doesn''t store a null.
I''ve tried with no luck:

radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',"nil")
and
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',nil)

no way..... any idea??? is possible??

Thanks.

Hi Matias,

Matias wrote:
> Hi, I''ve a boolean database field (tinyint(1)) wich allows
> nulls.
>
> Then, I''ve something like this:
>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',"NULL")
>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',true)
>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',false)
>
> The problem is with the 1st radio_button, it doesn''t store a null.
> I''ve tried with no luck:
>From a human factors perspective, it makes no sense to present a user with 
an option to select from true, false, or NULL.  From a CS perspective, 
booleans are for two-option choices, not three-option choices.  You
haven''t
said what you''re trying to accomplish, so I''m guessing here,
but if you want
to set the initial value to NULL you''d do it in your database
definition.
If you''re looking for something else, like trying to allow the user to
tell
you "I don''t know", then change your field definition to
varchar(7) and put
''true'', ''false'', or
''unknown'' in it.

hth,
Bill

Thanks,

I think I''m going to change the column type to char(1) and use simple
characters instead.

Thanks.
> Hi Matias,
> 
> Matias wrote:
> 
>> Hi, I''ve a boolean database field (tinyint(1)) wich allows
>> nulls.
>>
>> Then, I''ve something like this:
>>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',"NULL")
>>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',true)
>>
radio_button(''server'',''customer_has_login'',false)
>>
>> The problem is with the 1st radio_button, it doesn''t store a
null.
>> I''ve tried with no luck:
> 
>>From a human factors perspective, it makes no sense to present a user
with
> an option to select from true, false, or NULL.  From a CS perspective,
> booleans are for two-option choices, not three-option choices.  You
> haven''t said what you''re trying to accomplish, so
I''m guessing here, but
> if you want to set the initial value to NULL you''d do it in your
database
> definition. If you''re looking for something else, like trying to
allow the
> user to tell you "I don''t know", then change your field
definition to
> varchar(7) and put ''true'', ''false'', or
''unknown'' in it.
> 
> hth,
> Bill