Difference Between the '=' and '==' Operators and What Is '==='? (Single, Double, and Triple Equals)

What is the difference between the `=` and `==` operators and what is `===`? (Single, double, and triple equals)

= is the assignment operator. It sets a variable (the left-hand side) to a value (the right-hand side). The result is the value on the right-hand side.

== is the comparison operator. It will only return true if both values are equivalent after coercing their types to the same type.

=== is a more strict comparison operator often called the identity operator. It will only return true if both the type and value of the operands are the same.

I would check out CodeCademy for a quick intro to JavaScript.

If you prefer to read more, MDN is a great intro as well.

For those concerned about the source of the term "identity operator" jbabey pointed out that JavaScript: The Definitive Guide seems to mention it.

Difference between == and === in JavaScript

=== and !== are strict comparison operators:

JavaScript has both strict and
type-converting equality comparison.
For strict equality the objects being
compared must have the same type and:

• Two strings are strictly equal when they have the same sequence of
  characters, same length, and same
  characters in corresponding positions.
• Two numbers are strictly equal when they are numerically equal (have
  the same number value). NaN is not
  equal to anything, including NaN.
  Positive and negative zeros are equal
  to one another.
• Two Boolean operands are strictly equal if both are true or
  both are false.
• Two objects are strictly equal if they refer to the same Object.
• Null and Undefined types are == (but not ===). [I.e. (Null==Undefined) is true but (Null===Undefined) is false]

Comparison Operators - MDC

Which equals operator (== vs ===) should be used in JavaScript comparisons?

The strict equality operator (===) behaves identically to the abstract equality operator (==) except no type conversion is done, and the types must be the same to be considered equal.

Reference: Javascript Tutorial: Comparison Operators

The == operator will compare for equality after doing any necessary type conversions. The === operator will not do the conversion, so if two values are not the same type === will simply return false. Both are equally quick.

To quote Douglas Crockford's excellent JavaScript: The Good Parts,

JavaScript has two sets of equality operators: === and !==, and their evil twins == and !=. The good ones work the way you would expect. If the two operands are of the same type and have the same value, then === produces true and !== produces false. The evil twins do the right thing when the operands are of the same type, but if they are of different types, they attempt to coerce the values. the rules by which they do that are complicated and unmemorable. These are some of the interesting cases:

'' == '0'           // false
0 == ''             // true
0 == '0'            // true

false == 'false'    // false
false == '0'        // true

false == undefined  // false
false == null       // false
null == undefined   // true

' \t\r\n ' == 0     // true

The lack of transitivity is alarming. My advice is to never use the evil twins. Instead, always use === and !==. All of the comparisons just shown produce false with the === operator.

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Update:

A good point was brought up by @Casebash in the comments and in @Phillipe Laybaert's answer concerning objects. For objects, == and === act consistently with one another (except in a special case).

var a = [1,2,3];
var b = [1,2,3];

var c = { x: 1, y: 2 };
var d = { x: 1, y: 2 };

var e = "text";
var f = "te" + "xt";

a == b            // false
a === b           // false

c == d            // false
c === d           // false

e == f            // true
e === f           // true

The special case is when you compare a primitive with an object that evaluates to the same primitive, due to its toString or valueOf method. For example, consider the comparison of a string primitive with a string object created using the String constructor.

"abc" == new String("abc")    // true
"abc" === new String("abc")   // false

Here the == operator is checking the values of the two objects and returning true, but the === is seeing that they're not the same type and returning false. Which one is correct? That really depends on what you're trying to compare. My advice is to bypass the question entirely and just don't use the String constructor to create string objects from string literals.

Reference
http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/#sec-11.9.3

How do the PHP equality (== double equals) and identity (=== triple equals) comparison operators differ?

Difference between == and ===

The difference between the loosely == equal operator and the strict === identical operator is exactly explained in the manual:

Comparison Operators

┌──────────┬───────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Example  │ Name      │ Result                                                    │
├──────────┼───────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│$a ==  $b │ Equal     │ TRUE if $a is equal to $b after type juggling.            │
│$a === $b │ Identical │ TRUE if $a is equal to $b, and they are of the same type. │
└──────────┴───────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Loosely == equal comparison

If you are using the == operator, or any other comparison operator which uses loosely comparison such as !=, <> or ==, you always have to look at the context to see what, where and why something gets converted to understand what is going on.

Converting rules

• Converting to boolean
• Converting to integer
• Converting to float
• Converting to string
• Converting to array
• Converting to object
• Converting to resource
• Converting to NULL

Type comparison table

As reference and example you can see the comparison table in the manual:

Loose comparisons with ==

┌─────────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬─────────┬───────┬───────┐
│         │ TRUE  │ FALSE │   1   │   0   │  -1   │  "1"  │  "0"  │ "-1"  │ NULL  │ array() │ "php" │  ""   │
├─────────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼─────────┼───────┼───────┤
│ TRUE    │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ TRUE  │ FALSE │
│ FALSE   │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ TRUE    │ FALSE │ TRUE  │
│ 1       │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ 0       │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE   │ TRUE  │ TRUE  │
│ -1      │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "1"     │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "0"     │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "-1"    │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ NULL    │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ TRUE    │ FALSE │ TRUE  │
│ array() │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ TRUE    │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "php"   │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ TRUE  │ FALSE │
│ ""      │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ TRUE  │
└─────────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴─────────┴───────┴───────┘

Strict === identical comparison

If you are using the === operator, or any other comparison operator which uses strict comparison such as !== or ===, then you can always be sure that the types won't magically change, because there will be no converting going on. So with strict comparison the type and value have to be the same, not only the value.

Type comparison table

As reference and example you can see the comparison table in the manual:

Strict comparisons with ===

┌─────────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬─────────┬───────┬───────┐
│         │ TRUE  │ FALSE │   1   │   0   │  -1   │  "1"  │  "0"  │ "-1"  │ NULL  │ array() │ "php" │  ""   │
├─────────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼─────────┼───────┼───────┤
│ TRUE    │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ FALSE   │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ 1       │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ 0       │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ -1      │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "1"     │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "0"     │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "-1"    │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ NULL    │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE  │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ array() │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ TRUE    │ FALSE │ FALSE │
│ "php"   │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ TRUE  │ FALSE │
│ ""      │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE │ FALSE   │ FALSE │ TRUE  │
└─────────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴─────────┴───────┴───────┘

What is the difference between == and === in Verilog?

Some data types in Verilog, such as reg, are 4-state. This means that each bit can be one of 4 values: 0,1,x,z.

With the "case equality" operator, ===, x's are compared, and the result is 1.

With ==, the result of the comparison is not 0, as you stated; rather, the result is x, according to the IEEE Std (1800-2009), section 11.4.5 "Equality operators":

For the logical equality and logical
inequality operators (== and !=), if,
due to unknown or high-impedance bits
in the operands, the relation is
ambiguous, then the result shall be a
1-bit unknown value (x).

What is the difference between = and ==?

It depends on context as to what = means. == is always for testing equality.

= can be

1. in most cases used as a drop-in replacement for <-, the assignment operator.

   > x = 10
   > x
   [1] 10
   

2. used as the separator for key-value pairs used to assign values to arguments in function calls.

   rnorm(n = 10, mean = 5, sd = 2)
   

Because of 2. above, = can't be used as a drop-in replacement for <- in all situations. Consider

> rnorm(N <- 10, mean = 5, sd = 2)
 [1] 4.893132 4.572640 3.801045 3.646863 4.522483 4.881694 6.710255 6.314024
 [9] 2.268258 9.387091
> rnorm(N = 10, mean = 5, sd = 2)
Error in rnorm(N = 10, mean = 5, sd = 2) : unused argument (N = 10)
> N
[1] 10

Now some would consider rnorm(N <- 10, mean = 5, sd = 2) poor programming, but it is valid and you need to be aware of the differences between = and <- for assignment.

== is always used for equality testing:

> set.seed(10)
> logi <- sample(c(TRUE, FALSE), 10, replace = TRUE)
> logi
 [1] FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE
> logi == TRUE
 [1] FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE
> seq.int(1, 10) == 5L
 [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

Do be careful with == too however, as it really means exactly equal to and on a computer where floating point operations are involved you may not get the answer you were expecting. For example, from ?'==':

> x1 <- 0.5 - 0.3
> x2 <- 0.3 - 0.1
> x1 == x2                           # FALSE on most machines
[1] FALSE
> identical(all.equal(x1, x2), TRUE) # TRUE everywhere
[1] TRUE

where all.equal() tests for equality allowing for a little bit of fuzziness due to loss of precision/floating point operations.

Difference between != and !==

= is an assignment operator, e.g. If you run var x = 1; then x will have the value of 1.

== (or !=) is a comparison operator that checks if the value of something is equal to the value of something else. e.g. if(x == 1) will evaluate to true and so will if(x == true) because 1 will evaluate to true and 0 evaluate to false.

=== (or !==) is another comparison operator that checks if the value of something is equal to the value of, and is the same type as something else. e.g. if(x === 1) will evaluate to true however, if(x === true) will evaluate to false because 1 (the value of x) is an integer and true is a boolean.

C# difference between == and Equals()

When == is used on an expression of type object, it'll resolve to System.Object.ReferenceEquals.

Equals is just a virtual method and behaves as such, so the overridden version will be used (which, for string type compares the contents).

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