Coding with Jesse

Confusing JavaScript Equality

July 25th, 2007

I got tripped up today by something that took me a few minutes to figure out. I wrote this:

if (a == b == 0) {
    // only execute if both a and b are zero
}

But this was wrong. In fact, you can write this:

alert(3 == 4 == 0); // alerts "true"

Why is that? Because of the order things are evaluated. I made the mistake of thinking == has the same result as doing =:

var x, y;

x = y = 10;

alert(x); // 10
alert(y); // 10

But when you use == like that, it actually compares the firsts two values, then compares the result (true or false) against the 3rd value. It's the same as writing:

alert(3 == 4 == 0); // true
alert((3 == 4) == 0); // true

because 3 == 4 is false, and false == 0 is true!

About the author

Jesse Skinner Hi, I'm Jesse Skinner. I work with development teams to speed up and stabilize web applications, reduce server costs, fix difficult bugs, modernize legacy applications, and improve developer productivity. I'd love to hear from you and see how I can make your life easier.