String-to-boolean conversion is different from Pandas

python/cudf/cudf/core/column/string.py

@@ -171,6 +171,12 @@
     is_string_dtype,
 )
 
+
+def str_to_boolean(column: StringColumn):
+    """Takes in string column and returns boolean column """
+    return (column.str().len() > cudf.Scalar(0, dtype="int8")).fillna(False)
+
+
 _str_to_numeric_typecast_functions = {
     np.dtype("int8"): str_cast.stoi8,
     np.dtype("int16"): str_cast.stoi16,
@@ -182,7 +188,7 @@
     np.dtype("uint64"): str_cast.stoul,
     np.dtype("float32"): str_cast.stof,
     np.dtype("float64"): str_cast.stod,
-    np.dtype("bool"): str_cast.to_booleans,
+    np.dtype("bool"): str_to_boolean,
 }
 
 _numeric_to_str_typecast_functions = {

python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_string.py

@@ -200,11 +200,7 @@ def test_string_astype(dtype):
     ps = pd.Series(data)
     gs = cudf.Series(data)
 
-    # Pandas str --> bool typecasting always returns True if there's a string
-    if dtype.startswith("bool"):
-        expect = ps == "True"
-    else:
-        expect = ps.astype(dtype)
+    expect = ps.astype(dtype)
     got = gs.astype(dtype)
 
     assert_eq(expect, got)