Primitive Data Types, Arrays, Loops, and Conditions / Part 2 - Page 4

Primitive Data Types, Arrays, Loops, and Conditions - Part 2 [con't]

Booleans

There are only two values that belong to the boolean data type: the values true and false, used without quotes.

>>> var b = true; typeof b; "boolean" >>> var b = false; typeof b; "boolean"

If you quote true or false, they become strings.

>>> var b = "true"; typeof b; "string"

Logical Operators

There are three operators, called logical operators, that work with boolean values. These are:

• !—logical NOT (negation)
• &&—logical AND
• ||—logical OR

In everyday meaning, if something is not true, it is false. Here's the same statement expressed using JavaScript and the logical ! operator.

>>> var b = !true; >>> b; false

If you use the logical NOT twice, you get the original value:

>>> var b = !!true; >>> b; true

If you use a logical operator on a non-boolean value, the value is converted to boolean behind the scenes.

>>> var b = "one"; >>> !b; false

In the case above, the string value "one" was converted to a boolean true and then negated. The result of negating true is false. In the next example, we negate twice so the result is true.

>>> var b = "one"; >>> !!b; true

Using double negation is an easy way to convert any value to its boolean equivalent. This is rarely useful, but on the other hand understanding how any value converts to a boolean is important. Most values convert to true with the exception of the following (which convert to false):

• The empty string ""
• null
• undefined
• The number 0
• The number NaN
• The boolean false

These six values are sometimes referred to as being falsy, while all others are truthy (including, for example, the strings "0", " ", and "false").

Let's see some examples of the other two operators—the logical AND and the logical OR. When you use AND, the result is true only if all of the operands are true. When using OR, the result is true if at least one of the operands is true.

>>> var b1 = true; var b2 = false; >>> b1 || b2 true >>> b1 && b2 false

Here's a table that lists the possible operations and their results (see example).

You can use several logical operations one after the other:

>>> true && true && false && true false >>> false || true || false true

You can also mix && and || in the same expression. In this case, you should use parentheses to clarify how you intend the operation to work. Consider these:

>>> false && false || true && true true >>> false && (false || true) && true false

Operator Precedence

You might wonder why the expression above (false && false || true && true) returned true. The answer lies in operator precedence. As you know from mathematics:

>>> 1 + 2 * 3 7

This is because multiplication has precedence over addition, so 2 * 3 is evaluated first, as if you've typed:

>>> 1 + (2 * 3) 7

Similarly for logical operations, ! has the highest precedence and is executed first, assuming there are no parentheses that demand otherwise. Then, in the order of precedence, comes && and finally ||. In other words:

>>> false && false || true && true true

is the same as:

>>> (false && false) || (true && true) true

Best Practice: Use parentheses instead of relying on operator precedence. This makes your code easier to read and understand.

Lazy Evaluation

If you have several logical operations one after the other, but the result becomes clear at some point before the end, the final operations will not be performed, because they can't affect the end result. Consider this:

>>> true || false || true || false || true true

Since these are all OR operations and have the same precedence, the result will be true if at least one of the operands is true. After the first operand is evaluated, it becomes clear that the result will be true, no matter what values follow. So the JavaScript engine decides to be lazy (ok, efficient) and not do unnecessary work by evaluating code that doesn't affect the end result. You can verify this behavior by experimenting in the console:

>>> var b = 5; >>> true || (b = 6) true >>> b 5 >>> true && (b = 6) 6 >>> b 6

This example also shows another interesting behavior—if JavaScript encounters a non-boolean expression as an operand in a logical operation, the non-boolean is returned as a result.

>>> true || "something" true >>> true && "something" "something"

This behavior is something to watch out for and avoid, because it makes the code harder to understand. Sometimes you might see this behavior being used to define variables when you're not sure whether they were previously defined. In the next example, if the variable v is defined, its value is kept; otherwise, it's initialized with the value 10.

var mynumber = mynumber || 10;

This is simple and looks elegant, but be aware that it is not completely bulletproof. If mynumber is defined and initialized to 0 (or to any of the six falsy values), this code might not behave in exactly the way it was designed to work.

Comparison

There's another set of operators that all return a boolean value as a result of the operation. These are the comparison operators. The following table lists them, together with some examples.

Operator symbol	Description	Example
==	Equality comparison: Returns true when both operands are equal. The operands are converted to the same type before being compared.	>>> 1 == 1 true >>> 1 == 2 false >>> 1 == '1' true
===	Equality and type comparison: Returns true if both operands are equal and of the same type. It's generally better and safer if you compare this way, because there's no behind-the-scenes type conversions.	>>> 1 === '1' false >>> 1 === 1 true
!=	Non-equality comparison: Returns true if the operands are not equal to each other (after a type conversion)	>>> 1 != 1 false >>> 1 != '1' false >>> 1 != '2' true
!==	Non-equality comparison without type conversion: Returns true if the operands are not equal OR they are different types.	>>> 1 !== 1 false >>> 1 !== '1' true
>	Returns true if the left operand is greater than the right one.	>>> 1 > 1 false >>> 33 > 22 true
>=	Returns true if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right one.	>>> 1 >= 1 true
<	Returns true if the left operand is less than the right one.	>>> 1 < 1 false >>> 1 < 2 true
<=	Returns true if the left operand is less than or equal to the right one.	>>> 1 true >>> 1 true

An interesting thing to note is that NaN is not equal to anything, not even itself.

>>> NaN == NaN false

Undefined and null

You get the undefined value when you try to use a variable that doesn't exist, or one that hasn't yet been assigned a value. When you declare a variable without initializing it, JavaScript automatically initializes it to the value undefined.

If you try using a non-existing variable, you'll get an error message.

>>> foo foo is not defined

If you use the typeof operator on a non-existing variable, you get the string "undefined".

>>> typeof foo "undefined"

If you declare a variable without giving it a value, you won't get an error when you use that variable. But the typeof still returns "undefined".

>>> var somevar; >>> somevar >>> typeof somevar "undefined"

The null value, on the other hand, is not assigned by JavaScript behind the scenes; it can only be assigned by your code.

>>> var somevar = null null >>> somevar null >>> typeof somevar "object"

Although the difference between null and undefined is small, it may be important at times. For example, if you attempt an arithmetic operation, you can get different results:

>>> var i = 1 + undefined; i; NaN >>> var i = 1 + null; i; 1

This is because of the different ways null and undefined are converted to the other primitive types. Below are examples that show the possible conversions.

Conversion to a number:

>>> 1*undefined NaN >>> 1*null 0

Conversion to a boolean:

>>> !!undefined false >>> !!null false

Conversion to a string:

>>> "" + null "null" >>> "" + undefined "undefined"

Primitive Data Types Recap

Let's quickly summarize what has been discussed so far:

• There are five primitive data types in JavaScript:
  • number
  • string
  • boolean
  • undefined
  • null
• Everything that is not a primitive is an object
• The number data type can store positive and negative integers or floats, hexadecimal numbers, octal numbers, exponents, and the special numbers NaN, Infinity, and -Infinity
• The string data type contains characters in quotes
• The only values of the boolean data type are true and false
• The only value of the null data type is the value null
• The only value of the undefined data type is the value undefined
• All values become true when converted to a boolean, with the exception of the six falsy values:
  • null
  • undefined
  • 0
  • NaN
  • false

This chapter is an excerpt from the book, Object-Oriented JavaScript by Stoyan Stefanov, published by Packt Publishing Ltd, July 2008, ISBN 1847194141, Copyright 2008 Packt Publishing Ltd

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