Question

I am trying to retrieve a data attribute of type Boolean from an html DIV element , however it is always returning false when the string is converted to boolean .

HTML

<div id='test' data-return="true"></div>

JS

isreturn_str = $('#test').data('return');
isreturn = (isreturn_str === 'true');
if (isreturn) {
    document.write("It is true");
} else {
    document.write("It is false");
}

output

It is false

http://jsfiddle.net/neilghosh/494wC/

Answer 1

The jQuery .data() method is smart about recognizing boolean and numeric values and converts them into their native type. So this returns the boolean true, not "true":

$('#test').data('return');

If you want to get the raw data (without the automatic data conversion), you can use .attr():

$('#test').attr("data-return");

See the working test case here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/6BA8t/