The bool keyword is an alias of System.Boolean. It is used to declare variables to store the Boolean values, true and false.
If you require a Boolean variable that can also have a value of null, use bool. For more information, see Nullable Types (C# Programming Guide).
You can assign a Boolean value to a bool variable. You can also assign an expression that evaluates to bool to a bool variable.
// keyword_bool.cs using System; public class MyClass { static void Main() { bool i = true; char c = '0'; Console.WriteLine(i); i = false; Console.WriteLine(i); bool Alphabetic = (c > 64 && c < 123); Console.WriteLine(Alphabetic); } }
True False False
In C++, a value of type bool can be converted to a value of type int; in other words, false is equivalent to zero and true is equivalent to nonzero values. In C#, there is no conversion between the bool type and other types. For example, the following if statement is invalid in C#, while it is legal in C++:
int x = 123; if (x) // Invalid in C# { printf_s("The value of x is nonzero."); }
To test a variable of the type int, you have to explicitly compare it to a value, such as zero, as follows:
int x = 123; if (x != 0) // The C# way { Console.Write("The value of x is nonzero."); }
In this example, you enter a character from the keyboard and the program checks if the input character is a letter. If so, it checks if it is lowercase or uppercase. These checks are performed with the IsLetter, and IsLower, both of which return the bool type:
// keyword_bool_2.cs using System; public class BoolTest { static void Main() { Console.Write("Enter a character: "); char c = (char)Console.Read(); if (Char.IsLetter(c)) { if (Char.IsLower(c)) { Console.WriteLine("The character is lowercase."); } else { Console.WriteLine("The character is uppercase."); } } else { Console.WriteLine("Not an alphabetic character."); } } }
X
Enter a character: X The character is uppercase. Additional sample runs might look as follow: Enter a character: x The character is lowercase. Enter a character: 2 The character is not an alphabetic character.
For more information on bool and related subjects, see the following sections in the C# Language Specification:
4.1.8 The bool Type
7.9.4 Boolean Equality Operators
7.11.1 Boolean Conditional Logical Operators