How to check if a Ruby object is a Boolean

Question

I can\'t seem to check if an object is a boolean easily. Is there something like this in Ruby?

true.is_a?(Boolean)
false.is_a?(Boolean)

Ri

Answer 1

As stated above there is no boolean class just TrueClass and FalseClass however you can use any object as the subject of if/unless and everything is true except instances of FalseClass and nil

Boolean tests return an instance of the FalseClass or TrueClass

(1 > 0).class #TrueClass

The following monkeypatch to Object will tell you whether something is an instance of TrueClass or FalseClass

class Object
  def boolean?
    self.is_a?(TrueClass) || self.is_a?(FalseClass) 
  end
end

Running some tests with irb gives the following results

?> "String".boolean?
=> false
>> 1.boolean?
=> false
>> Time.now.boolean?
=> false
>> nil.boolean?
=> false
>> true.boolean?
=> true
>> false.boolean?
=> true
>> (1 ==1).boolean?
=> true
>> (1 ==2).boolean?
=> true