Cobra Forums

I have roughly the following lines in one of my programs:

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setting as String = "true"
option as bool = setting.toBoolean


And I'm getting a compile error: "string" does not contain a definition for "ToBoolean".

I also tried

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setting as String = "true"
option as bool = setting.toBool


But was told that: Cannot find a definition for "toBool" in "setting" whose type is "String". There is a member named "toBoolean" with a similar name.

Someone's telling fibs...

Previously I tried

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setting as String = "true"
option as bool = bool(setting)


And was told: Cannot find "bool". The same is true if I try "ToBoolean".

How should I be converting a string into a boolean?

Short answer:

-- bool.parse(input)
-- bool.tryParse(input, out b)

Long answer:

If you type "C# convert string to boolean" in Google, one of the hits shows:

How can I convert string to boolean? ... Either Convert.ToBoolean, or Boolean.Parse

So I tried this:
Which essentially works. An exception is thrown when s == 'bad' which inadvertently reveals that, at least on Mono 2.4.x, Convert.toBoolean is invoking Boolean.parse.

I don't know what your preferred style is, but I tend to use "type.parse(input)" such as "int.parse(input)" etc. The "Convert" class seems a little odd because it's not as if it could know about all types ahead of time such as System.Drawing.Point. Same thing with trying to put all "toXXX" methods on String, although I suppose extension methods would allow this.

I hope the "longer answer" shows how you can use "C# blah blah" in Google combined with "trace" to research issues.

-Chuck

Straight .NET from Boolean or Convert classes

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      setting as String = "true"
      #option as bool = Convert.toBoolean(setting)
      option as bool = Boolean.parse(setting)
      assert option


Theres also success = Boolean.tryParse(setting, option). probably others as well

Dont think theres anything specifically cobra for this

For such things re .Net I point a browser at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx
and type the guesses into the search bar... theres some addons that provide some sort of completion
but you usually get pages of hits into the API doc and occasional hits on MS rag articles blogs and wikis
Usually theres something that clarifies what you're after.

Works great for me and I'm not familiar at all with .Net

And if MSDN is running slow and heavy for you, see http://cobralang.blogspot.com/2009_05_09_archive.html.