You would think there would be a way using DirectCast, TryCast, CType etc but all of them seem to choke on it e.g.:
CType(\"Yes\", Boolean)
Using this way, you can define conversions from any string you like, to the boolean value you need. 1 is true, 0 is false, obviously.
Benefits: Easily modified. You can add new aliases or remove them very easily.
Cons: Will probably take longer than a simple if. (But if you have multiple alises, it will get hairy)
enum BooleanAliases { Yes = 1, Aye = 1, Cool = 1, Naw = 0, No = 0 } static bool FromString(string str) { return Convert.ToBoolean(Enum.Parse(typeof(BooleanAliases), str)); } // FromString("Yes") = true // FromString("No") = false // FromString("Cool") = true