How does (A == B == C) comparison work in JavaScript?
I was expecting the following comparison to give an error:
var A = B = 0;
if(A == B == 0)
console.log(true);
else
console.log(false);
but strangely it returns false
.
Even more strangely,
console.log((A == B == 1));
returns true
.
How does this "ternary" kind of comparison work?
First, we need to understand that a ==
comparison between a number and a boolean value will result in internal type conversion of Boolean value to a number (true
becomes 1
and false
becomes 0
)
The expression you have shown is evaluated from left to right. So, first
A == B
is evaluated and the result is true
and you are comparing true
with 0. Since true
becomes 1
during comparison, 1 == 0
evaluates to false
. But when you say
console.log((A == B == 1));
A == B
is true
, which when compared with number, becomes 1
and you are comparing that with 1 again. That is why it prints true
.
Assignment operators like = are right-associative: when there is a series of these operators that have the same precedence, they are processed right-to-left, so A = B = 0
is processed as A = (B = 0)
(B = 0
returns 0, so both A and B end up as 0).
Equality operators like == are left-associative: same-precedence operators are processed left-to-right. A == B == 0
is processed as (A == B) == 0
, and since A == B
is true (1), it becomes 1 == 0
, which is false (0).
Likewise, A == B == 1
is processed as (A == B) == 1
, which becomes 1 == 1
, which is true (1).
Source and more info: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Operator_Precedence
First, A == B
returns true
, which is then compared to 0, true == 0
which returns false, or true == 1
which returns true.