turn field off/on

Hello.

I am wondering what would be the best way to turn a field on/off in my database.

For example, when a new user registers I would like the status of his account to be "off" (value=0), and once validated then I will change the status to "on" (value=1).

I would like the default to be off.

thanks,
-michael

validated tinyint(1) not null default 0

put a field in the table called 'validated' and set it's type to tinyint (mysql doesn't support boolean types yet so use tinyint) and set its default value to 0. "When a user registers, insert their record into the table and don't specify a value for the 'Validated' field (you could also just set the value of the 'validated' field to 0 at this point, but since the default value is 0, you don't have to explicitly give it a value). nowwhen the user tries to log in, see if the value of the 'validated' field is 0 or 1 if it is 0, notify the user that their registration has not been validated yet. whenthe user validates their registration, update the 'validatedfield to 1. I hope that makes sense.