$toBool (aggregation)

Definition

• $toBool

New in version 4.0.

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" } }

See also

$convert

Behavior

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

The following table lists some conversion to boolean examples:

Example

Create a collection orders with the following documents:

db.orders.insert( [
   { _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 collectionconverts the shipped to a boolean value before finding theunshipped 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 aggregationoperation stops and throws an error. To override this behavior, use$convert instead.