Javascript: Comparing two identical object literals [duplicate]

Question

I'm pretty sure I figured this out before, but can't remember why this resolves to false. Can someone explain why?

if ({foo: 'bar'} === {foo: 'bar'}) {
  console.log("Strictly Equal");
} else {
  console.log("Not Equal");
}

I also tried == but it still has the two object literals as not equal.

Thanks

Please note, I'm voting to move this to SO. This isn't really a P.SE question. But, I think it fits on SO. Hence, I'm also giving a quick answer ... — svidgen
– svidgen, Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 17:40
@svidgen you might be interested in recent meta discussion: Should I answer a question which belongs on Stack Overflow? — gnat
– gnat, Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:01
@gnat Indeed. Didn't realize there was a consensus on this particular situation! — svidgen
– svidgen, Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:54
Sorry. About post to wrong site. My brain always goes code question = programmers, generic tech question = stackexchange. — Brian Chandler
– Brian Chandler, Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:56
Oh, not being snide or anything, but for the record I did look for what kind of question to post, and found this: "Programmers Stack Exchange ... who are interested in getting expert answers on conceptual questions about software development." off the Tour. I figured the question would fall under conceptual there because I was trying to remember the concepts behind why the code wasn't resolving to true. I thought there used to be a box that went straight to a detailed breakdown of what to post, but I don't see it anymore. — Brian Chandler
– Brian Chandler, Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 19:31

svidgen · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-29 13:43:33Z

5

== and === don't perform deep comparisons. They'll perform value comparisons for value types. But, objects are compared as references. And the objects in your comparison aren't the same object; they simply happen to be identical.

edited Jun 29, 2016 at 13:43

answered Jun 28, 2016 at 17:39

svidgen

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1 Comment

Brian Chandler Over a year ago

That's right! I totally forgot == and === only compare values. The references would be different so it would resolve as false. Thanks. It was irritating the heck out of me and when I googled around I couldn't find a good example similar (because I wasn't sure quite what to search for.)

Luc Franken · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-28 18:21:03Z

1

It's a different object. The string representation is the same though so you can use https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify to convert the unique objects into a string. Then compare the strings and they will match.

answered Jun 28, 2016 at 18:21

Luc Franken

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