I was thinking today that when I was a mid experience level engineer I have found a couple of problems where I could finally do something very smart and use 3-state logic instead of the classic true-false one.

I jumped in excitedly only to lose it when I realized "Wait, doesn't this make instead a good enum?". And then I went with a good ol' enum and all was well.

And now I am thinking again: wouldn't it make sense to replace as much as boolean flags with enums instead (or at least used named parameters).

See this example:

jsonb_set(data, '{user, role}', {
  id: 'supervisor',
  title: 'Chat group supervisor',
}, false);

When you are writing this, you still remember what was the false for the last parameter.
I give you a weak and if you are not using this jsonb_set function frequently you will have no memory of it.

We then waste time on things that could have been very clear.

Option 1: use enum

enum JsonbSetOption {
  CreateIfDoesNotExist,
  ThrowErrorIfDoesNotExist
}

jsonb_set(data, '{user, role}', {
  id: 'supervisor',
  title: 'Chat group supervisor',
}, JsonbSetOption.ThrowErrorIfDoesNotExist);

Basically anybody will know what this will do.

Option 2: passing named parameters

jsonb_set(data, '{user, role}', {
  id: 'supervisor',
  title: 'Chat group supervisor',
}, { throwErrorIfDoesNotExist: true });

Option 3: split it into two functions

jsonb_set_throw_on_update_path_missing(
  data, 
  '{user, role}',
  {
    id: 'supervisor',
    title: 'Chat group supervisor',
  }
);

It is up to you whichever you choose. Please don't just use random flags or else...

receiveSalary(you, false, true, true, false, null);