Equality in JavaScript

Update 2011-12-02: When is it OK to use == in JavaScript?

There are two operators for comparing values in JavaScript: strict equality === and “normal” (or lenient) equality ==. Many style guides (correctly) tell programmers to avoid lenient equality and always use strict equality. This post explains why.

Where appropriate, related sections in the ECMAScript 5 language specification [1] are mentioned in square brackets.

Two ways of comparing

• The strict equality operator === only considers values equal that have the same type.
• The lenient equality operator == tries to convert values of different types, before comparing like strict equality.

Lenient equality causes two problems:

• The conversion rules are counter-intuitive and do things you might not expect.
• As the operator is so forgiving, type errors can remain hidden longer.

Strict equals ===

[ES5 11.9.6] Comparing two values. Values with different types are never equal. If both values have the same type then the following assertions hold.

• undefined === undefined
• null === null
• Two (primitive) numbers:

      NaN !== _  // any value including NaN
      x === x
      +0 === -0
  

  for any number x. Thus equality is not reflexive in JavaScript, because NaN is not equal to itself.
• Two booleans, two strings (primitive): obvious results
• Two objects (including arrays and functions): x === y only if x and y are the same object(!). That is, if you want to compare different objects, you have to do it manually.

Examples:

    > var a = NaN;
    > a === a
    false
    > var b = {}, c = {};
    > b === c
    false
    > b === b
    true
    > "abc" === new String("abc")
    false // different types (left: primitive, right: object)

Equals ==

[ES5 11.9.3] Comparing two values. If both values have the same type: compare with ===. Otherwise:

1. undefined == null
2. One number, one string: convert the string to a number
3. A boolean and a non-boolean: convert the boolean to a number and then perform the comparison.
4. Comparing a string or a number to an object: try to convert the object to a primitive and then make the comparison.

(3) leads to a weird idiosyncrasy where numbers greater than 1 are true in if statements, but not equal to true:

    > 0 == false
    true
    > 1 == true
    true
    > 2 == true
    false
    > 2 ? true : false
    true // because 2 !== 0

Equality and strings:

    > "" == 0
    true
    > "123" == 123
    true
    > "" == false
    true
    > "1" == true
    true
    > "2" == true
    false
    > "true" == true
    false
    > "2" ? true : false
    true // because string is non-empty
    > "abc" == new String("abc")
    true // right side converted to primitive

Related reading

1. ECMAScript Language Specification, 5th edition.
2. JavaScript values: not everything is an object

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