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Lucas Paganini
Lucas Paganini

Posted on • Originally published at lucaspaganini.com

Falsy and Truthy in JavaScript


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Falsy

Falsy values are values that are considered false when encountered in a boolean context. That means values that become false if you try to convert them to a boolean.

Boolean('');
//=> false

Boolean(0);
//=> false

Boolean(null);
//=> false
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The list grows over time, but currently, those are the falsy values in JavaScript:

  1. false
  2. 0 -0 0n representations of zero 3. ```""''` empty string
  3. null
  4. undefined
  5. NaN not a number
  6. document.all possibly

NOTE: document.all can also be falsy in a very specific edge case.


markdown
**document.all**
Objects are falsy if and only if they have the [[IsHTMLDDA]] internal slot.
That slot only exists in 'document.all' and cannot be set using JavaScript.


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Truthy

Truthy values are the opposite. They are values that are considered true when encountered in a boolean context.


ts
Boolean('abc');
//=> true

Boolean(1);
//=> true

Boolean([]);
//=> true


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All values that are not falsy, are truthy.

Conclusion

References are in the references.

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References

  1. Truthy definition on MDN
  2. Falsy definition on MDN
  3. document.all edge case on MDN

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