Elegantly check for boolean type in rails
As a junior rails developer one of the first things that struck me as counter-intuitive was that I couldn't simply check for a boolean type in the same way I would any other class.
While I could ask a value if it is an integer in many ways:
value.integer?
value.is_a? Integer
#or synonymously
value.kind_of? Integer
I could not in the same manner ask a value if it was a boolean:
value.boolean?
value.is_a? Boolean
value.kind_of? Boolean
Recently I was solving a larger problem and needed to know if my value was indeed a boolean - once the ticket reached code review a co-worker left a comment to the tune of
"I think this is clever.... it's surely not stupid, right? I haven't seen it before."
Personally the solution came quickly however due to his reaction I thought some people out there may benefit from what I think is quite the clever solution:
!!value == value
So what are your thoughts world? Clever; or stupid?
Another, more readable (therefore probably more ruby-esque) and equally effective solution is:
[true, false].include? value
Either of these would make a great util addition:
def is_boolean?(value)
[true, false].include? value
end
alias_method(:is_bool?, :is_boolean?)
alias_method(:boolean?, :is_boolean?)