How to convert [String] to [Boolean]

If you always try to specify the type (as I do), maybe you already figured out that you cannot convert string to boolean in Powershell:

[Boolean]$Var = $True
$Var = “False”

Cannot convert value "System.String" to type "System.Boolean", parameters of th

is type only accept booleans or numbers, use $true, $false, 1 or 0 instead.


At line:1 char:5


+ $Var <<<<  = "False"


    + CategoryInfo          : MetadataError: (:) [], ArgumentTransformationMet


   adataException


    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException

Obviously, you should use $False or 0 instead… Sometimes this can be an issue – especially if you read your configuration from XML file, it is returned as string (so it is “0” instead of 0).

There is however workaround for this that allows you to convert string to boolean:

[Boolean]$Var = $False
$Var = [System.Convert]::ToBoolean("True")