What's the difference between MySQL BOOL and BOOLEAN column data types?

Question

I'm using MySQL version 5.1.49-1ubuntu8.1. It allows me to define columns of two different data types: BOOL and BOOLEAN. What are the differences between the two types?

Answer 1

They are both synonyms for TINYINT(1).

Answer 2

As established in other comments, they're synonyms for TINYINT(1).

*So, why do they bother differentiating between bool, boolean, tiny*int(1)?

Mostly semantics.

Bool and Boolean: MySQL default converts these to the tinyint type. Per a MySQL statement made around the time of this writing, "We intend to implement full boolean type handling, in accordance with standard SQL, in a future MySQL release."

0 = FALSE 1 = TRUE

TINYINT: Occupies one byte; ranges from -128 to +127; or, 0 – 256.

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Commonly brought up in this comparison: After MySQL 5.0.3 -- Bit: Uses 8 bytes and stores only binary data.