How to Convert Boolean to String

Question

I have a Boolean variable which I want to convert to a string:

$res = true;

I need the converted value to be of the format: \"true\"

Answer 1

The other solutions here all have caveats (though they address the question at hand). If you are (1) looping over mixed-types or (2) want a generic solution that you can export as a function or include in your utilities, none of the other solutions here will work.

The simplest and most self-explanatory solution is:

// simplest, most-readable
if (is_bool($res) {
    $res = $res ? 'true' : 'false';
}

// same as above but written more tersely
$res = is_bool($res) ? ($res ? 'true' : 'false') : $res;

// Terser still, but completely unnecessary  function call and must be
// commented due to poor readability. What is var_export? What is its
// second arg? Why are we exporting stuff?
$res = is_bool($res) ? var_export($res, 1) : $res;

But most developers reading your code will require a trip to http://php.net/var_export to understand what the var_export does and what the second param is.

1. var_export

Works for boolean input but converts everything else to a string as well.

// OK
var_export(false, 1); // 'false'
// OK
var_export(true, 1);  // 'true'
// NOT OK
var_export('', 1);  // '\'\''
// NOT OK
var_export(1, 1);  // '1'

2. ($res) ? 'true' : 'false';

Works for boolean input but converts everything else (ints, strings) to true/false.

// OK
true ? 'true' : 'false' // 'true'
// OK
false ? 'true' : 'false' // 'false'
// NOT OK
'' ? 'true' : 'false' // 'false'
// NOT OK
0 ? 'true' : 'false' // 'false'

3. json_encode()

Same issues as var_export and probably worse since json_encode cannot know if the string true was intended a string or a boolean.