If you want to "fight it out", go ahead. You're right, and you'll probably waste a lot of time and lose in the end. Would your DBA allow you to use a view? I believe your idea of using a bit is best, but it does violate your company's (dubious) standards. Why not create something like: CREATE MyView AS SELECT Field1, Field2, CAST(CASE WHEN (Flag = 'y' OR Flag = 'Y') THEN '1' ELSE '0' END AS Bit) [Flag] FROM dbo.MyTable Then your DBA can have it their way, and you can too.