String conversion to undefined/null/number/boolean

Question

Do you know any better and faster way to convert a string to the type it represents?

I\'ve always been using this function:

var convertType = functio         


        

Answer 1

This is a simple function which involves the use of a function to evaluate the strings. This way you can remove the part of cases' "switch". Be aware that this handles also assignments to global variables, so I recommend it only if you know anytime where is the source from(don't allow users to use this function!)

var convertType = function (value){
    try {
        return (new Function("return " + value + ";"))();
    } catch(e) {
        return value;
    }
};

You can see the jsfiddle here.