Dynamics 365 Business Central: Formatting Boolean Values (Yes/No, true/false, and 1/0)

Hi, Readers.
Today I would like to share another mini tip about Business Central, formatting Boolean Values (Yes/No, true/false, and 1/0).

In Dynamics 365 Business Central (AL language), the Boolean data type is a fundamental primitive type used to store logical values.
Boolean data type: Indicates true or false.

When creating a table, a Boolean field in the database is automatically rendered as a Checkbox/Toggle on the page (UI) by default, for example,
List page:

Card page:

There’s a minor issue here: how do we handle displaying ‘Yes/No’ or ‘true/false’ on pages or reports? While we could hardcode it, that’s definitely not recommended.

Actually, it’s not that difficult. I’ve summarized a few ways to convert Boolean values to text, and I hope this helps.

TestBoolean := true

TestBoolean := false

Test code:

pageextension 50120 CustomerListExt extends "Customer List"
{
    trigger OnOpenPage()
    var
        TestBoolean: Boolean;
        Msg: Label 'TestBoolean: %1\TestBoolean.ToText(): %2\Format(TestBoolean): %3\Format(TestBoolean, 0, 9): %4\Format(TestBoolean, 0, 2): %5';
    begin
        TestBoolean := true;
        Message(Msg, TestBoolean, TestBoolean.ToText(), Format(TestBoolean), Format(TestBoolean, 0, 9), Format(TestBoolean, 0, 2));
        TestBoolean := false;
        Message(Msg, TestBoolean, TestBoolean.ToText(), Format(TestBoolean), Format(TestBoolean, 0, 9), Format(TestBoolean, 0, 2));
    end;
}

Very simple. Give it a try!!!😁

PS:
1. Naming Conventions: Use prefixes that imply a state or a question to make code readable. Examples: IsPosted, HasLines, AllowEditing, EnableSync.

2. Avoid Redundant Comparisons: Since a Boolean is already a truth value, do not compare it to true or false unnecessarily.

• Bad: if IsPosted = true then
• Good: if IsPosted then
• Good: if not IsPosted then

3. Boolean (logical) operators

END

Hope this will help.

Thanks for reading.

ZHU