title: Why use "Y"/"N" instead of a bit field in Microsoft SQL Server?
body: <p>I'm working on an application developed by another mob and am confounded by the use of a char field instead of bit for all the boolean columns in the database. It uses "Y" for true and "N" for false (these have to be uppercase). The type name itself is then aliased with some obscure name like <em>ybln</em>.</p>
  
  <p>This is very annoying to work with for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it just looks downright aesthetically unpleasing.</p>
  
  <p>But maybe its me that's stupid - why would anyone do this? Is it a database compatibility issue or some design pattern that I am not aware of?</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone enlighten me?</p>