Typescript conversion to boolean

Here is my solution for "typescript": "^3.3.3":

function toBool(a: any) {
  return Boolean(a).valueOf();
}

export { toBool };

unit test:

import { toBool } from '../../utils/bool';

describe('bool', () => {
  describe('#toBool', () => {
    it('should convert string to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool('false')).toBeTruthy();
      expect(toBool('')).toBeFalsy();
    });
    it('should convert number to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool(1)).toBeTruthy();
      expect(toBool(0)).toBeFalsy();
      expect(toBool(-1)).toBeTruthy();
      expect(toBool(Infinity)).toBeTruthy();
      expect(toBool(-Infinity)).toBeTruthy();
    });
    it('should convert null to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool(null)).toBeFalsy();
    });
    it('should convert undefined to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool(undefined)).toBeFalsy();
    });
    it('should convert NaN to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool(NaN)).toBeFalsy();
    });
    it('should convert object to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool({})).toBeTruthy();
    });
    it('should convert array to boolean', () => {
      expect(toBool([])).toBeTruthy();
    });
  });
});

unit test results:

 PASS  src/__tests__/utils/bool.spec.ts
  bool
    #toBool
      ✓ should convert string to boolean (3ms)
      ✓ should convert number to boolean (1ms)
      ✓ should convert null to boolean (1ms)
      ✓ should convert undefined to boolean
      ✓ should convert NaN to boolean (1ms)
      ✓ should convert object to boolean (1ms)
      ✓ should convert array to boolean

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       7 passed, 7 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        3.79s, estimated 4s

While you can't cast a number directly to a boolean, you can cast it to the wrapper Boolean class and immediately unwrap it. For example:

foo(<boolean><Boolean>xxx);

While clumsy, it avoids the type erasure of casting to <any>. It's also arguably less obscure & more readable than the !! approach (certainly so in the transpiled js code).

You can use double exclamation sign trick which Typescript does allow and which works fine in JavaScript:

foo(!!xxx);

Alternatively, cast it to any

foo(<any>xxx);