Mirth 3.3 validate function always creates type "Object"

Question

When upgrading to Mirth 3.3, I found that the

validate(isEmptyString, fallback); //returns isEmptyString if not empty, or fallback if it is empty

had been changed. Prior to 3.3, validate() always returned a string. Now with 3.3, it returns an object. This is problematic in the following code:

var procedure = validate("", ""); // used to return an empty string. Now returns an object.
var description = "This is the description";
var output = procedure || description;

Because procedure is an object, it never returns falsey, therefore output = procedure always.

I've also tried to convert procedure to a string using a toString() in the above logical, but it fails to convert it.

In the above code, what is the new standard for performing this type of check? Previous to 3.3, the above || would have worked wonderfully. Is there a way to force type to be string (as I mentioned, simply tacking on a .toString() to the end of the .validate() function does not force the variable to be of string type)?

Answer 1

You should be able to add an empty string to the object in question and rhino will convert it to a string allowing your 3rd line to work.

var procedure = validate("", "")+"";
var description = "This is the description";
var output = procedure || description