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: 
A helper method like below may come in handy.

```
def truthy?(val)
  val.present? && !val.to_s.strip.in?(['false', '0'])
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

```