Question: I am getting a request from mobile app. They are sending a variable `isbookmarked` that can be either `1` or `0`. I am checking in if statement. 

```
if isbookmarked
  do something
else
  do something
end

```

The `else` part is never executed because `0` is not recognised as `false` 

How can I achieve this?

Answer: 
So, in addition to @AndreyDaineko, you also can use [`case`](http://ruby-doc.org/docs/keywords/1.9/Object.html#method-i-case)

```
case isbookmarked
when 1
  do something
when 0
  do something
else
  something go wrong
end

```
You can also use [`zero?`](https://ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Numeric.html#method-i-zero-3F) to check whether the value is zero or not. But there is no special method to check 1 only way `isbookmarked == 1`

```
if isbookmarked.zero?
  do something
else
  do something
end

```