Syntax

SET(value1, value2, ...)

Storage

Description

A list of values taken from a predefined set of values. A field can contain any number—including none—of the strings specified in the SET statement. A SET is basically an ENUM that allows each field to contain more than one of the specified values. A SET, however, is not stored according to index but as a complex bit map. Given a SET with the members Orange, Apple, Pear, and Banana, each element is represented by an “on” bit in a byte, as shown in Table 16-2.

The values Orange and Pear are therefore stored in the database as 5 (0101).

You can store a maximum of 64 values in a SET column. Though you can assign the same value multiple times in an SQL statement updating a SET column, only a single value will actually be stored.