Converting Boolean to Integer in Java without If-Statements

Question

I\'m wondering if there\'s a way to convert a boolean to an int without using if statements (as not to break the pipeline). For example, I could write

int bo         


        

Answer 1

This is not directly possible, not in Java anyway. You could consider directly using an int or byte instead of a boolean if you really need to avoid the branch.

It's also possible that the VM is smart enough to eliminate the branch (the if or ?:) itself in this case, as the boolean's internal representation is quite likely to be the literal 1 or 0 anyway. Here is an article on how to examine the generated native machine code for the Oracle JDK, and if you need speed, make sure you're using the "server" JVM as it performs more aggressive optimization than the "client" one.

Answer 2

You can try using ternary operator like this

int value = flag ? 1 : 0;

Answer 3

Nowadays, jdk has delivered a useful Utils method: BooleanUtils.toInteger()

In the source code, the method that jdk realize it must be efficient:

public static int toInteger(boolean bool) {
    return bool ? 1 : 0;
}

So, I think the most votes answer is very great, return bool ? 1 : 0 is the best practice.

Example Code to use BooleanUtils as followed:

BooleanUtils.toInteger(false);

Answer 4

I can't say I recommend this. It's both slower than the ternary operator by itself, and it's too clever to be called good programming, but there's this:

-Boolean.FALSE.compareTo(value)

It uses the ternary under the covers (a couple of method calls later), but it's not in your code. To be fair, I would be willing to bet that there's a branch somewhere in the Python execution as well (though I probably only bet a nickel ;) ).

Answer 5

int ansInt = givenBoolean ? 1 : 0;

Answer 6

A reasonable alternative to ising to the ternary to avoid an "if":

private static Boolean[] array = {false, true};

int boolToInt( boolean b ){
    return Arrays.binarySearch(array, b);
}

Note that I consider this s "puzzle" question, so if coding it myself i would use the ternary..