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JavaScript

Posted by Carlos Ramirez
Carlos Ramirez
5,084 Points

About === instead of ==

I don't understand in order to check the correct answer why === instead of == is used.

3 Answers

Dom Farnham
Dom Farnham
19,421 Points
Dom Farnham
Dom Farnham
19,421 Points

Hi,

They are both comparison operators. However, they are slightly different.

== is equal to

=== is equal to and same type

var cars = 20;

cars == 20 // true

cars === 20 // true

cars == "20" // true

cars === "20" // false

Hope this helps. :-)

Saiteja Vemula
Saiteja Vemula
7,162 Points
Saiteja Vemula
Saiteja Vemula
7,162 Points

== is just an equals to operator where as === is strict equals to operator. == evaluates to true if both operands have same data even though they differ in type.

For example :

var x = 3;
vay y = '3';
if (x===y) {
    document.write("x is not equals to y");
} else if (x==y) {
    document.write("x is equals to y");
}

In this example, the condition in "if" is False, where as the condition in "else if" is True

Carlos Ramirez
Carlos Ramirez
5,084 Points

Ok, now I understand the difference. But why is === instead of ==?. In the case of the video he is using === to compare two strings. Why not simply using ==? Is there any best practice about this?

Saiteja Vemula
Saiteja Vemula
7,162 Points
Saiteja Vemula
Saiteja Vemula
7,162 Points

== will evalute to true even if the variables are of different types. Where as === doesn't. === evaluates to true only if both the operands are exactly same(i.e., both value as well as type).

Dom Farnham
Dom Farnham
19,421 Points
Dom Farnham
Dom Farnham
19,421 Points

I use === because I prefer strictly typed. People who come from using strictly typed languages such as C, may prefer to use === as opposed to the looser ==.