# Data type for a single char flags

**URL:** <https://community.neo4j.com/t/data-type-for-a-single-char-flags/5176>\
**Category:** Neo4j Graph Platform\
**Tags:** import, storage\
**Created:** [February 19, 2019, 6:58am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/data-type-for-a-single-char-flags/5176 "2019-02-19T06:58:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sankar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/sankar/32/3375_2.png) [@Sankar](https://community.neo4j.com/u/Sankar)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 6:58am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/data-type-for-a-single-char-flags/5176/1 "2019-02-19T06:58:23Z")

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What is data type to be used for flags , which are mostly a single character. I understand using string would be costing more in terms of storage.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![michael.hunger](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/michael.hunger/32/27377_2.png) [@michael.hunger](https://community.neo4j.com/u/michael.hunger)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/data-type-for-a-single-char-flags/5176/2 "2019-02-25T16:52:37Z")

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Strings are fine as they are encoded in compressed storage anyway with only relevant bits for the representation. That even works with arrays of strings.

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