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$toBool (aggregation)

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  • Definition
  • Behavior
  • Example
$toBool

Converts a value to a boolean.

$toBool has the following syntax:

{
$toBool: <expression>
}

The $toBool takes any valid expression.

The $toBool is a shorthand for the following $convert expression:

{ $convert: { input: <expression>, to: "bool" } }

Tip

See also:

The following table lists the input types that can be converted to a boolean:

Input Type
Behavior

Array

Returns true

Binary data

Returns true

Boolean

No-op. Returns the boolean value.

Code

Returns true

Date

Returns true

Decimal

Returns true if not zero
Return false if zero

Double

Returns true if not zero
Return false if zero

Integer

Returns true if not zero
Return false if zero

JavaScript

Returns true

Long

Returns true if not zero
Return false if zero

MaxKey

Returns true

MinKey

Returns true

Null

Returns null

Object

Returns true

ObjectId

Returns true

Regular expression

Returns true

String

Returns true

Timestamp

Returns true

To learn more about data types in MongoDB, see BSON Types.

The following table lists some conversion to boolean examples:

Example
Results

{$toBool: false}

false

{$toBool: 1.99999}

true

{$toBool: NumberDecimal("5")}

true

{$toBool: NumberDecimal("0")}

false

{$toBool: 100}

true

{$toBool: ISODate("2018-03-26T04:38:28.044Z")}

true

{$toBool: "false"}

true

{$toBool: ""}

true

{$toBool: null}

null

Create a collection orders with the following documents:

db.orders.insertMany( [
{ _id: 1, item: "apple", qty: 5, shipped: true },
{ _id: 2, item: "pie", qty: 10, shipped: 0 },
{ _id: 3, item: "ice cream", shipped: 1 },
{ _id: 4, item: "almonds", qty: 2, shipped: "true" },
{ _id: 5, item: "pecans", shipped: "false" }, // Note: All strings convert to true
{ _id: 6, item: "nougat", shipped: "" } // Note: All strings convert to true
] )

The following aggregation operation on the orders collection converts the shipped to a boolean value before finding the unshipped orders:

// Define stage to add convertedShippedFlag field with the converted shipped value
// Because all strings convert to true, include specific handling for "false" and ""
shippedConversionStage = {
$addFields: {
convertedShippedFlag: {
$switch: {
branches: [
{ case: { $eq: [ "$shipped", "false" ] }, then: false } ,
{ case: { $eq: [ "$shipped", "" ] }, then: false }
],
default: { $toBool: "$shipped" }
}
}
}
};
// Define stage to filter documents and pass only the unshipped orders
unshippedMatchStage = {
$match: { "convertedShippedFlag": false }
};
db.orders.aggregate( [
shippedConversionStage,
unshippedMatchStage
] )

The operation returns the following document:

{ "_id" : 2, "item" : "pie", "qty" : 10, "shipped" : 0, "convertedShippedFlag" : false }
{ "_id" : 5, "item" : "pecans", "shipped" : "false", "convertedShippedFlag" : false }
{ "_id" : 6, "item" : "nougat", "shipped" : "", "convertedShippedFlag" : false }

Note

If the conversion operation encounters an error, the aggregation operation stops and throws an error. To override this behavior, use $convert instead.

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$tanh