C# bool anomaly?

bool in C# is a normal .NET System.Boolean. SQLite itself only has INTEGER/REAL/TEXT/BLOB, but the ADO.NET provider (Microsoft.Data.Sqlite or System.Data.SQLite) and Dapper sit on top and perform type mapping and conversions for you.

From the .NET side:

• bool is a primitive .NET type whose default is false and which is commonly used as a flag and in conditionals like if (testVar).
• When working with databases that don’t have a native Boolean type, .NET data providers map between database primitives and .NET bool transparently.

For SQLite specifically:

• SQLite only stores INTEGER, REAL, TEXT, and BLOB.
• The Microsoft SQLite provider maps a .NET Boolean to SQLite INTEGER with values 0 or 1.
• Providers can also convert from TEXT values like "true"/"false" to bool when reading, so the caller sees a bool even though the underlying storage is TEXT.

Dapper’s ExecuteScalar<T> relies on the underlying ADO.NET provider’s type conversion. When T is bool, it asks the provider to give a Boolean. The provider inspects the SQLite value (TEXT in this case) and converts it to false, so:

bool testVar = DBconnect.KVpair_Get_Value<bool>(queryKey);

works without needing bool.TryParse in user code.

This is expected behavior and is safe to rely on as long as:

• The column values are consistently valid Boolean representations for the provider (e.g., 0/1, true/false, or whatever the provider supports).
• The schema and data format are under control so unexpected strings don’t appear.

If there is a risk of arbitrary or malformed text in that column, reading as string and using bool.TryParse (or custom parsing) would give more explicit control and error handling. Otherwise, letting Dapper and the provider handle the conversion is standard and safe.

References:

• bool (C# reference)
• System.Boolean struct
• Data types