Can I convert a string representing a boolean value (e.g., 'true', 'false') into a intrinsic type in JavaScript?
I have a hidden form in HTML that is updated based upon a user's selection within a list. This form contains some fields which represent boolean values and are dynamically populated with an intrinsic boolean value. However, once this value is placed into the hidden input field it becomes a string.
The only way I could find to determine the field's boolean value, once it was converted into a string, was to depend upon the literal value of its string representation.
var myValue = document.myForm.IS_TRUE.value;
var isTrueSet = myValue == 'true';
Is there a better way to accomplish this?
转载于:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/263965/how-can-i-convert-a-string-to-boolean-in-javascript
var isTrueSet = (myValue == 'true');
You could make it stricter by using the identity operator (===
), which doesn't make any implicit type conversions when the compared variables have different types, instead of the equality operator (==
).
var isTrueSet = (myValue === 'true');
You should probably be cautious about using these two methods for your specific needs:
var myBool = Boolean("false"); // == true
var myBool = !!"false"; // == true
Any string which isn't the empty string will evaluate to true
by using them. Although they're the cleanest methods I can think of concerning to boolean conversion, I think they're not what you're looking for.
The Boolean object doesn't have a 'parse' method. Boolean('false')
returns true, so that won't work. !!'false'
also returns true
, so that won't work also.
If you want string 'true'
to return boolean true
and string 'false'
to return boolean false
, then the simplest solution is to use eval()
. eval('true')
returns true and eval('false')
returns false. Keep in mind the performance implications when using eval()
though.
The expression you're looking for simply is
/^true$/i.test(myValue)
as in
var isTrueSet = /^true$/i.test(myValue);
This tests myValue
against a regular expression , case-insensitive, and doesn't modify the prototype.
Examples:
/^true$/i.test("true"); // true
/^true$/i.test("TRUE"); // true
/^true$/i.test("tRuE"); // true
/^true$/i.test(" tRuE"); // false (notice the space at the beginning)
/^true$/i.test("untrue"); // false (some other solutions here will incorrectly return true
/^true$/i.test("false");// returns false
/^true$/i.test("xyz"); // returns false
Boolean.parse = function (str) {
switch (str.toLowerCase ()) {
case "true":
return true;
case "false":
return false;
default:
throw new Error ("Boolean.parse: Cannot convert string to boolean.");
}
};
Your solution is fine.
Using ===
would just be silly in this case, as the field's value
will always be a String
.
Like @Shadow2531 said, you can't just convert it directly. I'd also suggest that you consider string inputs besides "true" and "false" that are 'truthy' and 'falsey' if your code is going to be reused/used by others. This is what I use:
function parseBoolean(string) {
switch (String(string).toLowerCase()) {
case "true":
case "1":
case "yes":
case "y":
return true;
case "false":
case "0":
case "no":
case "n":
return false;
default:
//you could throw an error, but 'undefined' seems a more logical reply
return undefined;
}
}
Hands down the easiest way (assuming you string will be 'true' or 'false') is:
var z = 'true';
var y = 'false';
var b = (z === 'true'); // will evaluate to true
var c = (y === 'true'); // will evaluate to false
Always use the === operator instead of the == operator for these types of conversions!
You can use regular expressions:
/*
* Converts a string to a bool.
*
* This conversion will:
*
* - match 'true', 'on', or '1' as true.
* - ignore all white-space padding
* - ignore capitalization (case).
*
* ' tRue ','ON', and '1 ' will all evaluate as true.
*
*/
function strToBool(s)
{
// will match one and only one of the string 'true','1', or 'on' rerardless
// of capitalization and regardless off surrounding white-space.
//
regex=/^\s*(true|1|on)\s*$/i
return regex.test(s);
}
If you like extending the String class you can do:
String.prototype.bool = function() {
return strToBool(this);
};
alert("true".bool());
For those (see the comments) that would like to extend the String object to get this but are worried about enumerability and are worried about clashing with other code that extends the String object:
Object.defineProperty(String.prototype, "com_example_bool", {
get : function() {
return (/^(true|1)$/i).test(this);
}
});
alert("true".com_example_bool);
(Won't work in older browsers of course and Firefox shows false while Opera, Chrome, Safari and IE show true. Bug 720760)
This highly upvoted legacy answer is technically correct but only covers a very specific scenario, when your string value is EXACTLY "true"
or "false"
(MUST be lowercase as well).
An invalid json string passed into these functions below WILL throw an exception.
Original answer:
How about?
JSON.parse("true");
or with jQuery
$.parseJSON("true");
I think this is much universal:
if (String(a) == "true")
...
It goes:
String(true) == "true" //returns true
String(false) == "true" //returns false
String("true") == "true" //returns true
String("false") == "true" //returns false
stringToBoolean: function(string){
switch(string.toLowerCase().trim()){
case "true": case "yes": case "1": return true;
case "false": case "no": case "0": case null: return false;
default: return Boolean(string);
}
}
Remember to match case:
var isTrueSet = (myValue.toLowerCase() === 'true');
Also, if it's a form element checkbox, you can also detect if the checkbox is checked:
var isTrueSet = document.myForm.IS_TRUE.checked;
Assuming that if it is checked, it is "set" equal to true. This evaluates as true/false.
I use the following:
function parseBool(b) {
return !(/^(false|0)$/i).test(b) && !!b;
}
This function performs the usual Boolean coercion with the exception of the strings "false" (case insensitive) and "0".
Universal solution with JSON parse:
function getBool(val) {
return !!JSON.parse(String(val).toLowerCase());
}
getBool("1"); //true
getBool("0"); //false
getBool("true"); //true
getBool("false"); //false
getBool("TRUE"); //true
getBool("FALSE"); //false
UPDATE (without JSON):
function getBool(val){
var num = +val;
return !isNaN(num) ? !!num : !!String(val).toLowerCase().replace(!!0,'');
}
I also created fiddle to test it http://jsfiddle.net/remunda/2GRhG/
I thought that @Steven 's answer was the best one, and took care of a lot more cases than if the incoming value was just a string. I wanted to extend it a bit and offer the following:
function isTrue(value){
if (typeof(value) === 'string'){
value = value.trim().toLowerCase();
}
switch(value){
case true:
case "true":
case 1:
case "1":
case "on":
case "yes":
return true;
default:
return false;
}
}
It's not necessary to cover all the false
cases if you already know all of the true
cases you'd have to account for. You can pass anything into this method that could pass for a true
value (or add others, it's pretty straightforward), and everything else would be considered false
Wood-eye be careful. After seeing the consequences after applying the the top answer with 500+ upvotes, I feel obligated to post something that is actually useful:
Let's start with the shortest, but very strict way:
var str = "true";
var mybool = JSON.parse(str);
And end with a proper, more tolerant way:
var parseBool = function(str)
{
// console.log(typeof str);
// strict: JSON.parse(str)
if(str == null)
return false;
if (typeof str === 'boolean')
{
return (str === true);
}
if(typeof str === 'string')
{
if(str == "")
return false;
str = str.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
if(str.toLowerCase() == 'true' || str.toLowerCase() == 'yes')
return true;
str = str.replace(/,/g, '.');
str = str.replace(/^\s*\-\s*/g, '-');
}
// var isNum = string.match(/^[0-9]+$/) != null;
// var isNum = /^\d+$/.test(str);
if(!isNaN(str))
return (parseFloat(str) != 0);
return false;
}
Testing:
var array_1 = new Array(true, 1, "1",-1, "-1", " - 1", "true", "TrUe", " true ", " TrUe", 1/0, "1.5", "1,5", 1.5, 5, -3, -0.1, 0.1, " - 0.1", Infinity, "Infinity", -Infinity, "-Infinity"," - Infinity", " yEs");
var array_2 = new Array(null, "", false, "false", " false ", " f alse", "FaLsE", 0, "00", "1/0", 0.0, "0.0", "0,0", "100a", "1 00", " 0 ", 0.0, "0.0", -0.0, "-0.0", " -1a ", "abc");
for(var i =0; i < array_1.length;++i){ console.log("array_1["+i+"] ("+array_1[i]+"): " + parseBool(array_1[i]));}
for(var i =0; i < array_2.length;++i){ console.log("array_2["+i+"] ("+array_2[i]+"): " + parseBool(array_2[i]));}
for(var i =0; i < array_1.length;++i){ console.log(parseBool(array_1[i]));}
for(var i =0; i < array_2.length;++i){ console.log(parseBool(array_2[i]));}
var falsy = /^(?:f(?:alse)?|no?|0+)$/i;
Boolean.parse = function(val) {
return !falsy.test(val) && !!val;
};
This returns false
for every falsy value and true
for every truthy value except for 'false'
, 'f'
, 'no'
, 'n'
, and '0'
(case-insensitive).
// False
Boolean.parse(false);
Boolean.parse('false');
Boolean.parse('False');
Boolean.parse('FALSE');
Boolean.parse('f');
Boolean.parse('F');
Boolean.parse('no');
Boolean.parse('No');
Boolean.parse('NO');
Boolean.parse('n');
Boolean.parse('N');
Boolean.parse('0');
Boolean.parse('');
Boolean.parse(0);
Boolean.parse(null);
Boolean.parse(undefined);
Boolean.parse(NaN);
Boolean.parse();
//True
Boolean.parse(true);
Boolean.parse('true');
Boolean.parse('True');
Boolean.parse('t');
Boolean.parse('yes');
Boolean.parse('YES');
Boolean.parse('y');
Boolean.parse('1');
Boolean.parse('foo');
Boolean.parse({});
Boolean.parse(1);
Boolean.parse(-1);
Boolean.parse(new Date());
I'm using this one
String.prototype.maybeBool = function(){
if ( ["yes", "true", "1", "on"].indexOf( this.toLowerCase() ) !== -1 ) return true;
if ( ["no", "false", "0", "off"].indexOf( this.toLowerCase() ) !== -1 ) return false;
return this;
}
"on".maybeBool(); //returns true;
"off".maybeBool(); //returns false;
"I like js".maybeBool(); //returns "I like js"
There are a lot of answers and it's hard to pick one. In my case, I prioritise the performance when choosing, so I create this jsPerf that I hope can throw some light here.
Brief of results (the higher the better):
They are linked to the related answer where you can find more information (pros and cons) about each one; specially in the comments.
To convert both string("true", "false") and boolean to boolean
('' + flag) === "true"
Where flag
can be
var flag = true
var flag = "true"
var flag = false
var flag = "false"
There are already so many answers available. But following can be useful in some scenarios.
// One can specify all values against which you consider truthy
var TRUTHY_VALUES = [true, 'true', 1];
function getBoolean(a) {
return TRUTHY_VALUES.some(function(t) {
return t === a;
});
}
This can be useful where one examples with non-boolean values.
getBoolean('aa'); // false
getBoolean(false); //false
getBoolean('false'); //false
getBoolean('true'); // true
getBoolean(true); // true
getBoolean(1); // true
This has been taken from the accepted answer, but really it has a very weak point, and I am shocked how it got that count of upvotes, the problem with it that you have to consider the case of the string because this is case sensitive
var isTrueSet = (myValue.toLowerCase() === 'true');