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

Although I like the hash approach (I've used it in the past for similar stuff), given that you only really care about matching truthy values - since - everything else is false - you can check for inclusion in an array:

value = [true, 'true'].include?(value)

or if other values could be deemed truthy:

value = [1, true, '1', 'true'].include?(value)

you'd have to do other stuff if your original value might be mixed case:

value = value.to_s.downcase == 'true'

but again, for your specific description of your problem, you could get away with that last example as your solution.