Ruby: How to convert a string to boolean

I've frequently used this pattern to extend the core behavior of Ruby to make it easier to deal with converting arbitrary data types to boolean values, which makes it really easy to deal with varying URL parameters, etc.

class String
  def to_boolean
    ActiveRecord::Type::Boolean.new.cast(self)
  end
end

class NilClass
  def to_boolean
    false
  end
end

class TrueClass
  def to_boolean
    true
  end

  def to_i
    1
  end
end

class FalseClass
  def to_boolean
    false
  end

  def to_i
    0
  end
end

class Integer
  def to_boolean
    to_s.to_boolean
  end
end

So let's say you have a parameter foo which can be:

• an integer (0 is false, all others are true)
• a true boolean (true/false)
• a string ("true", "false", "0", "1", "TRUE", "FALSE")
• nil

Instead of using a bunch of conditionals, you can just call foo.to_boolean and it will do the rest of the magic for you.

In Rails, I add this to an initializer named core_ext.rb in nearly all of my projects since this pattern is so common.

## EXAMPLES

nil.to_boolean     == false
true.to_boolean    == true
false.to_boolean   == false
0.to_boolean       == false
1.to_boolean       == true
99.to_boolean      == true
"true".to_boolean  == true
"foo".to_boolean   == true
"false".to_boolean == false
"TRUE".to_boolean  == true
"FALSE".to_boolean == false
"0".to_boolean     == false
"1".to_boolean     == true
true.to_i          == 1
false.to_i         == 0

Working in Rails 5

ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('t')     # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('true')  # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(true)    # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('1')     # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('f')     # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('0')     # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('false') # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(false)   # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(nil)     # => nil

In a rails 5.1 app, I use this core extension built on top of ActiveRecord::Type::Boolean. It is working perfectly for me when I deserialize boolean from JSON string.

https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveModel/Type/Boolean.html

# app/lib/core_extensions/string.rb
module CoreExtensions
  module String
    def to_bool
      ActiveRecord::Type::Boolean.new.deserialize(downcase.strip)
    end
  end
end

initialize core extensions

# config/initializers/core_extensions.rb
String.include CoreExtensions::String

rspec

# spec/lib/core_extensions/string_spec.rb
describe CoreExtensions::String do
  describe "#to_bool" do
    %w[0 f F false FALSE False off OFF Off].each do |falsey_string|
      it "converts #{falsey_string} to false" do
        expect(falsey_string.to_bool).to eq(false)
      end
    end
  end
end

In Rails I prefer using ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(value) as mentioned in other answers here

But when I write plain Ruby lib. then I use a hack where JSON.parse (standard Ruby library) will convert string "true" to true and "false" to false. E.g.:

require 'json'
azure_cli_response = `az group exists --name derrentest`  # => "true\n"
JSON.parse(azure_cli_response) # => true

azure_cli_response = `az group exists --name derrentesttt`  # => "false\n"
JSON.parse(azure_cli_response) # => false

Example from live application:

require 'json'
if JSON.parse(`az group exists --name derrentest`)
  `az group create --name derrentest --location uksouth`
end

confirmed under Ruby 2.5.1

I have a little hack for this one. JSON.parse('false') will return false and JSON.parse('true') will return true. But this doesn't work with JSON.parse(true || false). So, if you use something like JSON.parse(your_value.to_s) it should achieve your goal in a simple but hacky way.

Rubocop suggested format:

YOUR_VALUE.to_s.casecmp('true').zero?

https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/rubocop/0.42.0/RuboCop/Cop/Performance/Casecmp

Close to what is already posted, but without the redundant parameter:

class String
    def true?
        self.to_s.downcase == "true"
    end
end

usage:

do_stuff = "true"

if do_stuff.true?
    #do stuff
end

This function works for any input:

def true?(value)
 ![false, 0, "0", "f", "F", "false", "FALSE", "off", "OFF"].include? value
end

then you have:

true?(param) #returns true or false