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Tyron Barlow-Kearsley
Tyron Barlow-Kearsley

Posted on

NOT NOT (!!)

Picture this

You need to check if an element exists on a page, let's take a look at this example:

You have a list of cool bugs on your website, but you want to check if the ladybug element is present on a specific instance (maybe the user initially chooses a bunch of insects from a list)

function doesLadybugExist() {
    return (document.getElementById("lady-bug"));
    // This will either return the element, or null
}

This looks alright... but, this will either return the element, or it will return null, which is not wrong, but in this example its not desired, we want to see if the ladybug exists

Lady bugs are !! cool

function doesLadybugExist() {
    return (!!document.getElementById("lady-bug"));
    // This will either true if it exists, or false
}

Take a closer look and see the !!

This is great because it returns a boolean value for us to if the user likes ladybugs or not. Success!

But not so fast. How does this work?

A quick google search will tell you that !! does not exist in a java context. It is simply the ! operator used twice.

What this does is it converts a non-boolean to an inverted boolean, meaning any truthy values get evaluated to true, and any falsy values get evaluated to false (in a boolean context)

All values are truthy unless they are defined as falsy

Below are the values that are falsy in Javascript according to MDN

No. Value
1. false
2. null
3. undefined
4. 0 (note: the string '0' evaluates to true)
5. NaN
6. ''
7. document.all

Using !! is a clean, and easy way of comparing the state of an element on your DOM against a boolean value without having to worry about type-casting and other conversion methods.

And, lastly, do not not leave a like and a unicorn ;)

Top comments (8)

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thematrixan profile image
Mateusz Lesiak

Yes, it will work but ESLint will mark it as redundant negation. IMHO it is better to use Boolean(...).

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maruru profile image
Marco Alka

ESLint is opinionated and only as good as its configuration...

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jwkicklighter profile image
Jordan Kicklighter • Edited

Someone had to make the initial configuration and even put in time to build the rule. Perhaps digging into why they took the time to do this can provide an idea as to why double negation could present possible friction.

As someone pointed out below, using !! is less obvious at a glance and take mental effort to decipher meaning. Don't get me wrong, it's important to know about and to share with people! But the alternative of using Boolean() is certainly worth exploring rather than simply ruling out for no reason.

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maruru profile image
Marco Alka

using !! is less obvious at a glance

imho, depends on how used you are to seeing it. I am not used to seeing Boolean(), so it causes more friction to me than !! ๐Ÿ˜‰

All in all, I think it's just another way to do something in the already rather ambiguous JS language, and I'd put it right in line with for..of vs .forEach() or the usage of semicolons. There's arguments on both sides and it comes down to the person writing the code.

Whenever I do a code-review and see either, I just skip it for that very reason, if there are no strong arguments for using exactly one of them.

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juyn profile image
Xavier Dubois ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท

We have the same behavior in PHP. I really dislike this syntax.
It's unclear and you have to think too much in order to get what the developer meant.

Also, KISS ! It should be simple, and if you want a Boolean, simply cast it to a Boolean using the dedicated methods

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett ๐ŸŒ€ • Edited

100% not a good plan. Values are already truethy or falsey. Narrowing your data down to booleans using coercion is wasted effort and a practice which I suppose avoids side effects with no actual gain. I can appreciate that it's easier to comprehend that true is true and false is false, but knowing what is falsey and what is truethy in JavaScript at a language level is far more valuable.

I appreciate your passion for the idea and I see that you want clean code which is commendable, I know that I once fell for such seductive techniques. But my mentor at the time taught me the value of clean code Vs understandable code and if you have to think about anything not not being what it is then it's not not not good.

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maruru profile image
Marco Alka

Your code has one bracket too many in the return statement in both code snippets.

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tyronasaurus_dev profile image
Tyron Barlow-Kearsley

Thanks i edited the post!