While watching a presentation recently on a SQL Server topic, I was surprised by a design technique that the speaker used. I hadn't ever thought of the issue, but it caught my eye and made me rethink the way I look at design, and even data.

In this case, the speaker was building a table and looking to make a row active or inactive. This person chose to use a column name of "inactive," which surprised me. I've always used an "active" column if I am trying to mark a row in a binary fashion.

That got me thinking. I wonder if there is some impact to designing entities either way, but I wanted to ask this question:

Are you positive or negative. Would you use an active flag or an inactive flag?

This could be extended to any other type of choice, but do you look to flag an action as happening, or not happening. As readable or not readable? As usable or ignored? I'm not sure it matters, but I'd certainly be curious if anyone has any reason why you might choose one or the other. Is there some meaning conveyed? Let us know this week.