What is the difference between bool and Boolean ty

Question

What is the difference between bool and Boolean types in C#?

Answer 1

I realise this is many years later but I stumbled across this page from google with the same question.

There is one minor difference on the MSDN page as of now.

VS2005

Note:

If you require a Boolean variable that can also have a value of null, use bool. For more information, see Nullable Types (C# Programming Guide).

VS2010

Note:

If you require a Boolean variable that can also have a value of null, use bool?. For more information, see Nullable Types (C# Programming Guide).

Answer 2

bool is an alias for the Boolean class. I use the alias when declaring a variable and the class name when calling a method on the class.

Answer 3

bool is an alias for Boolean. What aliases do is replace one string of text with another (like search/replace-all in notepad++), just before the code is compiled. Using one over the other has no effect at run-time.

In most other languages, one would be a primitive type and the other would be an object type (value type and reference type in C# jargon). C# does not give you the option of choosing between the two. When you want to call a static method defined in the Boolean class, it auto-magically treats Boolean as a reference type. If you create a new Boolean variable, it auto-magically treats it as a reference type (unless you use the Activator.CreateInstance method).

Answer 4

Perhaps bool is a tad "lighter" than Boolean; Interestingly, changing this:

namespace DuckbillServerWebAPI.Models
{
    public class Expense
    {
        . . .
        public bool CanUseOnItems { get; set; }
    }
}

...to this:

namespace DuckbillServerWebAPI.Models
{
    public class Expense
    {
        . . .
        public Boolean CanUseOnItems { get; set; }
    }
}

...caused my cs file to sprout a "using System;" Changing the type back to "bool" caused the using clause's hair to turn grey.

(Visual Studio 2010, WebAPI project)

Answer 5

I don't believe there is one.

bool is just an alias for System.Boolean

Answer 6

They are the same. Boolean helps simplify conversion back and forth between C# and VB.Net. Most C# programmers tend to prefer 'bool', but if you are in a shop where there's a lot of both VB.Net and C# then you may prefer Boolean because it works in both places.