JavaScript quirk 3: normal equality (==)

[This post is part of a series on JavaScript quirks.]


Let’s start with a simple rule: the normal equality operators == and != are so problematic that you should always use strict equality (=== and !==). Some people say that there are exceptions to this rule, I disagree [2]. Keeping this rule in mind, we can now take a look at what is strange about == without burdening our minds unnecessarily.




The “normal” equality operator (==) has many quirks. While it is forgiving, it does not adhere to the typical rules of truthy and falsy (see quirk 1):


> 0 == false // OK
true
> 1 == true // OK
true
> 2 == true // not OK
false

> '' == false // OK
true
> '1' == true // OK
true
> '2' == true // not OK
false

Apart from that, it lets you compare values that aren’t really comparable:

> '' == 0
true
> '\n 123 \t' == 123
true

The last check is true because conversion to number ignores leading and trailing whitespace in JavaScript.


If you are still interested in finding out how exactly == works, you can read up on it here: [1].
With strict equality (===), values of different types are never equal [1], which means that all of the above problems go away.


References:


  1. Equality in JavaScript: === versus ==

  2. When is it OK to use == in JavaScript?


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