Vjeux

Comparison

In Javascript there are 3 types we are often comparing: String, Number and Boolean. After digging through the ECMA-262 specifications, here is the behaviour of the == operator (11.9.3) on these types:

• Number == String
  Typecasted as follow: Number == Number(String)
• Number == Boolean
  Typecasted as follow: Number == Number(Boolean)
• String == Boolean
  Typecasted as follow: Number(String) == Number(Boolean)

This means that when comparing data of two different types, they will first be converted to Number.

Note: The order of the equality is not important: A == B is the same as B == A (except the order of evalution of A and B).

You can force comparison of a and b with the type you want:

• String: "" + a == "" + b
• Number: +a == +b
• Integer: a | 0 == b | 0
• Boolean: !!a == !!b

Addition / Concatenation

The binary + operator follows a simple rule (11.6.1):

• if one of the operands is a String, both operands are converted to String and the + is a concatenation.
• Else, both operands are converted to Number and the + is an addition.

Note: Some Objects are considered as Strings like Arrays. See 8.6.2 for more informations.

Note: The operator is binary so 1 + 1 + 'a' will be executed as (1 + 1) + 'a' and therefore be equal to "2a" and not "11a".