What do I need to do to a struct to use it in a boolean context?

General Usage
1

What do I need to do to a struct to use it in a boolean context?

julia> struct Foo
       bool::Bool
       end

julia> if Foo(true)
       println("How do I make this work?")
       end
ERROR: TypeError: non-boolean (Foo) used in boolean context
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope

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2 Likes
2

You can’t. Only Bool can be used in a boolean context.

(In principle, we could add an AbstractBool supertype of Bool and allow any AbstractBool in a boolean context, and/or add istrue/isfalse functions that you could overload.)

3 Likes
3

If it’s too much setup for the application, this should also work

if Foo.bool
       println("How do I make this work?")
end
4

I can think of other places where sub typing from AbstractBool (or implementing istrue or isfalse as appropriate for if statements) would simplify things. I think it would be a useful addition.

I’m working a large codebase that has deployed Bools in e.g. structs and has accessed those bools elsewhere in the code in if statements. However, pointers to those structs are also passed to a c library which expects the Bools to be 32 bit ints, where it only cares about the first bit. The problem is that it struct is the wrong size and I get a segfault.

Two solutions were proposed:

  1. Keep the structs as they are and use convert at the point of the ccall. E.g.:
struct Foo
  bar::Bool
  baz::Bool
end

struct Foo_ccall
  Bar::Cint
  Baz::Cint
end
Base.convert(::Type{Foo_ccall}, foo::Foo) = Foo_ccall(Cint(foo.bar), Cint(foo.baz))

and use the ccall via

foo = Foo(true, false)#
output = ccall(func, ReturnType, (Ref{Foo_ccall},), foo)

rather than the original

output = ccall(func, ReturnType, (Ref{Foo},), foo)
  1. Swap out the Bools in the structs for Cints and refactor the if statements.

I ended up doing 1) to make sure that I was solving the right problem and then 2) because the technical debt had to be paid at some point.