Can a SQL database concatenate existing fields into a new field?

oh_maestro

I am setting up a database which will receive information from a web form, including a Birth month, Birth day, and Birth year.

Is there a way to have SQL concantenate this into a new field called Birthday, that will combine the month, day and year?

Also, is there a way create a boolean field? My way around this before was just typing in Yes or No w/ a varchar(3) data type.

Roger_Ramjet

Yes you use CONCAT(col1, col2, col3). See the string functions in the manual for the form with string seperator CONCAT_WS.

The mysql fudge is tinyint with values 0=false, 1=true for code manipulation. Not very satisfactory either. The logical form that is most compatible across languages is -1=true not 1=true. This will integrate most closely with logical operations in C and VB.

oh_maestro

Can you use phpMyAdmin to concatenate?
I'm not sure where (using phpMyAdmin) I would use the CONCAT function.

Roger_Ramjet

Same place you would run any sql query or statement, in the text area beneath "Run SQL query..." or from a text file.

oh_maestro

OK, I am there. If I type this in correctly, will this automatically concatenate these fields into a different field each time a record is added?

Roger_Ramjet

NO!! RTFM! It will concatenate them when you run a select query, so you can also cancatenate then into another field with an insert.. select or an update query.