Ruby: How to convert a string to boolean

Question

I have a value that will be one of four things: boolean true, boolean false, the string \"true\", or the string \"false\". I want to convert the string to a boolean if it i

Answer 1

Don't think too much:

bool_or_string.to_s == "true"  

So,

"true".to_s == "true"   #true
"false".to_s == "true"  #false 
true.to_s == "true"     #true
false.to_s == "true"    #false

You could also add ".downcase," if you are worried about capital letters.