Equality Comparisons in Programming
Hello HaWkers! Jeff Bruchado here.
This is another article in our series that will cover our journey to Learn Programming from Scratch.
Today will be an article about another extremely important content to proceed with your learning.
So please! If you don't have mastery over what I'll talk about today, read to the end!
Well, without further ado, let's get started!
Today, we're going to talk about a super used topic in Programming: Equality Comparisons.
Equality Comparisons are used to check if two values are equal or different.
There are two ways to make equality comparisons:
The loose equality operator (==) and the strict equality operator (===).
Let's understand each of them in detail.
Loose Equality Operator (==)
The loose equality operator (==) is used to check if two values are equal.
Before making the comparison, the loose operator tries to convert the values to the same type before making the comparison.
For example:
console.log(1 == 1); // true
console.log('1' == 1); // true
console.log(true == 1); // true
console.log(null == undefined); // true
console.log([] == false); // trueAs we can see in the example above, the loose equality operator (==) tries to convert the values to the same type before making the comparison.
In the first example, 1 is compared with 1 and both are of the same type (number), so the comparison is true.
In the second example, '1' (string) is compared with 1 (number) and they are converted to the same type (number) before comparison, so the comparison is true.
In the third example, true (boolean) is compared with 1 (number) and they are converted to the same type (number) before comparison, so the comparison is true.
In the fourth example, null (a null reference value) is compared with undefined (an undefined reference value) and they are considered equal, so the comparison is true.
In the fifth example, [] (an empty array) is compared with false (a boolean value) and they are converted to the same type (number) before comparison, so the comparison is true.
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Anyway, having given the message for those who want to accelerate their development in the field, let's continue with the content and understand the Strict Equality Operator (===).
Strict Equality Operator (===)
The strict equality operator (===) is used to check if two values are equal and of the same type.
It doesn't try to convert the values to the same type before making the comparison.
For example:
console.log(1 === 1); // true
console.log('1' === 1); // false
console.log(true === 1); // false
console.log(null === undefined); // false
console.log([] === false); // falseAs we can see in the example above, the strict equality operator (===) doesn't try to convert the values to the same type before making the comparison.
In the first example, 1 is compared with 1 and both are of the same type (number) and value, so the comparison is true.
In the second example, '1' (a string) is compared with 1 (number) and, since they are of different types, the comparison is false.
In the third example, true (a boolean value) is compared with 1 (a number) and, since they are of different types, the comparison is false.
In the fourth example, null (a null reference value) is compared with undefined (an undefined reference value) and, although they are considered equal by the loose equality operator, they are of different types, so the comparison is false.
PS: If you don't understand the different Data Types, access one of the previous articles that talks about Data Types and reread it.
In the fifth example, [] (an empty array) is compared with false (a boolean value) and, since they are of different types, the comparison is false.
Conclusion
In summary, the strict equality operator (===) is generally considered safer than the loose equality operator (==), because it doesn't try to convert values to the same type before comparison.
It's recommended to always use the strict equality operator, unless you have a good reason to use the loose equality operator.
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- Jeff Bruchado
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