5.2. Equality

5.2.1. Loose Equality With ==

In the section Booleans, we learned about the comparison operators == and !=, which test whether two values are equal or not equal, respectively. However, there are some quirks with using the == operator, which occur when we use == to compare different data types.

Example

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console.log(7 == "7");
console.log(0 == false);
console.log(0 == '');

Console Output

true
true
true

In order to properly make a comparison, the two operands must be the same type. If the two operands to == are of different data types, JavaScript will implicitly convert the operands so that the values are of the same data type before comparing the two. For this reason, the == operator is often said to measure loose equality.

Type conversions with == are carried out according to a complex set of rules, and while many of these conversions make some sense, others do not.

For example, Number("7") returns 7, so it makes some sense that 7 == "7" returns true. However, the following example leaves us scratching our heads.

Example

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console.log('0' == 0);
console.log(0 == '');
console.log('0' == '');

Console Output

true
true
false

The == operator is non-transitive. We think of equality as being transitive; for example, if A and B are equal and B and C are equal, then A and C are also equal. However, the example above demonstrates that that is not the case for the == operator.

Since == does not follow rules that we typically associate with equality, unexpected results may occur if == is used in a program. Thankfully, JavaScript provides another operator that returns more predictable results.

5.2.2. Strict Equality With ===

The operator === compares two operands without converting their data types. In other words, if a and b are of different data types (say, a is a string and b is a number) then a === b will always be false.

Example

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console.log(7 === "7");
console.log(0 === false);
console.log(0 === '');

Console Output

false
false
false

For this reason, the === operator is often said to measure strict equality.

Just as equality operator == has the inequality operator !=, there is also a strict inequality operator, !==. The boolean expression a !== b returns true when the two operands are of different types, or if they are of the same type and have different values.

Tip

USE === AND !== WHENEVER POSSIBLE. In this book we will use these strict operators over the loose operators from now on.

5.2.3. Check Your Understanding

Question

What is the result of the following boolean expression?

4 == "4"

  1. true

  2. false

  3. "true"

  4. "false"

Question

What is the difference between == and ===?

  1. There is no difference. They work exactly the same.

  2. Only === throws an error if its arguments are of different types.

  3. == converts values of different types to be the same type, while === does not.

  4. == works with all data types, while === does not.