Boolean vs tinyint(1) for boolean values in MySQL

While it's true that bool and tinyint(1) are functionally identical, bool should be the preferred option because it carries the semantic meaning of what you're trying to do. Also, many ORMs will convert bool into your programing language's native boolean type.

Whenever you choose int or bool it matters especially when nullable column comes into play.

Imagine a product with multiple photos. How do you know which photo serves as a product cover? Well, we would use a column that indicates it.

So far out product_image table has two columns: product_id and is_cover

Cool? Not yet. Since the product can have only one cover we need to add a unique index on these two columns.

But wait, if these two column will get an unique index how would you store many non-cover images for the same product? The unique index would throw an error here.

So you may though "Okay, but you can use NULL value since these are ommited by unique index checks", and yes this is truth, but we are loosing linguistic rules here.

What is the purpose of NULL value in boolean type column? Is it "all", "any", or "no"? The null value in boolean column allows us to use the unique index, but it also messes up how we interpret the records.

I would tell that in some cases the integer can serve a better purpose since its not bound to strict true or false meaning