The Boolean class wraps a value of the primitive type boolean in an object. An object of type Boolean contains a single field whose type is boolean.

In addition, this class provides many methods for converting a boolean to a String and a String to a boolean, as well as other constants and methods useful when dealing with a boolean.

@author
Arthur van Hoff
@version
1.51, 05/11/04
@since
JDK1.0
Allocates a Boolean object representing the value argument.

Note: It is rarely appropriate to use this constructor. Unless a new instance is required, the static factory is generally a better choice. It is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance.

Parameters
valuethe value of the Boolean.
Allocates a Boolean object representing the value true if the string argument is not null and is equal, ignoring case, to the string "true". Otherwise, allocate a Boolean object representing the value false. Examples:

new Boolean("True") produces a Boolean object that represents true.
new Boolean("yes") produces a Boolean object that represents false.

Parameters
sthe string to be converted to a Boolean.
The Boolean object corresponding to the primitive value false.
The Boolean object corresponding to the primitive value true.
The Class object representing the primitive type boolean.
@since
JDK1.1
Returns the value of this Boolean object as a boolean primitive.
Return
the primitive boolean value of this object.
Compares this Boolean instance with another.
Parameters
bthe Boolean instance to be compared
Return
zero if this object represents the same boolean value as the argument; a positive value if this object represents true and the argument represents false; and a negative value if this object represents false and the argument represents true
Throws
NullPointerExceptionif the argument is null
@since
1.5
See Also
Compares this object with the specified object for order. Returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified object.

In the foregoing description, the notation sgn(expression) designates the mathematical signum function, which is defined to return one of -1, 0, or 1 according to whether the value of expression is negative, zero or positive. The implementor must ensure sgn(x.compareTo(y)) == -sgn(y.compareTo(x)) for all x and y. (This implies that x.compareTo(y) must throw an exception iff y.compareTo(x) throws an exception.)

The implementor must also ensure that the relation is transitive: (x.compareTo(y)>0 && y.compareTo(z)>0) implies x.compareTo(z)>0.

Finally, the implementer must ensure that x.compareTo(y)==0 implies that sgn(x.compareTo(z)) == sgn(y.compareTo(z)), for all z.

It is strongly recommended, but not strictly required that (x.compareTo(y)==0) == (x.equals(y)). Generally speaking, any class that implements the Comparable interface and violates this condition should clearly indicate this fact. The recommended language is "Note: this class has a natural ordering that is inconsistent with equals."

Parameters
othe Object to be compared.
Return
a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified object.
Throws
ClassCastExceptionif the specified object's type prevents it from being compared to this Object.
Returns true if and only if the argument is not null and is a Boolean object that represents the same boolean value as this object.
Parameters
objthe object to compare with.
Return
true if the Boolean objects represent the same value; false otherwise.
Returns true if and only if the system property named by the argument exists and is equal to the string "true". (Beginning with version 1.0.2 of the JavaTM platform, the test of this string is case insensitive.) A system property is accessible through getProperty, a method defined by the System class.

If there is no property with the specified name, or if the specified name is empty or null, then false is returned.

Parameters
namethe system property name.
Return
the boolean value of the system property.
Returns the runtime class of an object. That Class object is the object that is locked by static synchronized methods of the represented class.
Return
The java.lang.Class object that represents the runtime class of the object. The result is of type {@code Class} where X is the erasure of the static type of the expression on which getClass is called.
Returns a hash code for this Boolean object.
Return
the integer 1231 if this object represents true; returns the integer 1237 if this object represents false.
Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. If any threads are waiting on this object, one of them is chosen to be awakened. The choice is arbitrary and occurs at the discretion of the implementation. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened thread will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened thread will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened thread enjoys no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. A thread becomes the owner of the object's monitor in one of three ways:

  • By executing a synchronized instance method of that object.
  • By executing the body of a synchronized statement that synchronizes on the object.
  • For objects of type Class, by executing a synchronized static method of that class.

Only one thread at a time can own an object's monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened threads will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened threads will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened threads enjoy no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Parses the string argument as a boolean. The boolean returned represents the value true if the string argument is not null and is equal, ignoring case, to the string "true".
Parameters
sthe String containing the boolean representation to be parsed
Return
the boolean represented by the string argument
@since
1.5
Returns a String object representing this Boolean's value. If this object represents the value true, a string equal to "true" is returned. Otherwise, a string equal to "false" is returned.
Return
a string representation of this object.
Returns a String object representing the specified boolean. If the specified boolean is true, then the string "true" will be returned, otherwise the string "false" will be returned.
Parameters
bthe boolean to be converted
Return
the string representation of the specified boolean
@since
1.4
Returns a Boolean instance representing the specified boolean value. If the specified boolean value is true, this method returns Boolean.TRUE; if it is false, this method returns Boolean.FALSE. If a new Boolean instance is not required, this method should generally be used in preference to the constructor , as this method is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance.
Parameters
ba boolean value.
Return
a Boolean instance representing b.
@since
1.4
Returns a Boolean with a value represented by the specified String. The Boolean returned represents the value true if the string argument is not null and is equal, ignoring case, to the string "true".

Example: Boolean.valueOf("True") returns true.
Example: Boolean.valueOf("yes") returns false.

Parameters
sa string.
Return
the Boolean value represented by the string.
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object. In other words, this method behaves exactly as if it simply performs the call wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method. The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait();
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.

The current thread must own this object's monitor.

This method causes the current thread (call it T) to place itself in the wait set for this object and then to relinquish any and all synchronization claims on this object. Thread T becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of four things happens:

  • Some other thread invokes the notify method for this object and thread T happens to be arbitrarily chosen as the thread to be awakened.
  • Some other thread invokes the notifyAll method for this object.
  • Some other thread interrupts thread T.
  • The specified amount of real time has elapsed, more or less. If timeout is zero, however, then real time is not taken into consideration and the thread simply waits until notified.
The thread T is then removed from the wait set for this object and re-enabled for thread scheduling. It then competes in the usual manner with other threads for the right to synchronize on the object; once it has gained control of the object, all its synchronization claims on the object are restored to the status quo ante - that is, to the situation as of the time that the wait method was invoked. Thread T then returns from the invocation of the wait method. Thus, on return from the wait method, the synchronization state of the object and of thread T is exactly as it was when the wait method was invoked.

A thread can also wake up without being notified, interrupted, or timing out, a so-called spurious wakeup. While this will rarely occur in practice, applications must guard against it by testing for the condition that should have caused the thread to be awakened, and continuing to wait if the condition is not satisfied. In other words, waits should always occur in loops, like this one:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
(For more information on this topic, see Section 3.2.3 in Doug Lea's "Concurrent Programming in Java (Second Edition)" (Addison-Wesley, 2000), or Item 50 in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java Programming Language Guide" (Addison-Wesley, 2001).

If the current thread is interrupted by another thread while it is waiting, then an InterruptedException is thrown. This exception is not thrown until the lock status of this object has been restored as described above.

Note that the wait method, as it places the current thread into the wait set for this object, unlocks only this object; any other objects on which the current thread may be synchronized remain locked while the thread waits.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

This method is similar to the wait method of one argument, but it allows finer control over the amount of time to wait for a notification before giving up. The amount of real time, measured in nanoseconds, is given by:

 1000000*timeout+nanos

In all other respects, this method does the same thing as the method of one argument. In particular, wait(0, 0) means the same thing as wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until either of the following two conditions has occurred:

  • Another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method.
  • The timeout period, specified by timeout milliseconds plus nanos nanoseconds arguments, has elapsed.

The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout, nanos);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
nanosadditional time, in nanoseconds range 0-999999.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative or the value of nanos is not in the range 0-999999.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.