Question

What’s the utility method that parses a boolean String properly? By properly I mean

"true" => true
"false" => false
"foo" => error

The parse methods in java.lang.Boolean are dodgy – they don’t distinguish “false” from “foo”. Anything else in Java libraries (or Guava, or Commons Lang) that does it properly?

Yes it’s just be a couple lines, I just rather not write any line that I shouldn’t have to. 🙂

Answer 1

Check out Boolean Utils form apache commons :

Boolean Utils API

Converts a String to a Boolean
throwing an exception if no match
found.

null is returned if there is no match.

BooleanUtils.toBoolean(“true”,
“true”, “false”) = true
BooleanUtils.toBoolean(“false”,
“true”, “false”) = false