Lint warning: comparisons against null

[SpanishBoy]

I am getting the following error when I validate a page:

[JavaScript] lint warning: comparisons against null, 0, true, false, or an empty string allowing implicit type conversion (use === or !==)

The code it doesn't like is:

 if (place % 2 == 0) {

Will someone please explain what I have to change to get rid of the validation error.

I have done a search on the site and thread 187016 is similar, but it doesn't solve my problem.

Many thanks

[Dormilich]

as the message says

comparisons against null, 0, true, false, or an empty string allowing implicit type conversion

a comparison using not the type-safe comparison allows values to correctly match the expression, even if they are not intended to. although it doesn’t play a role here since the result of a mathematical operation is always a number.

Will someone please explain what I have to change to get rid of the validation error.

ask Lint:

(use === or !==)

[SpanishBoy]

Thank you for your reply Dormilich.

I found "Lint" via Google and ran the code in their 'Online Lint'. This came up with exactly the same words as before! So asking Lint didn't tell me what to do and I still don't know how to correct the code.

I was hoping that someone could tell me how to correct the existing line by using "===" or "!==" instead of the existing code.

[devnull69]

Lint tells you exactly what to do. You just didn't understand that you need to replace == with ===

[SpanishBoy]

Thank you devnull99.

I think that I now understand it

I tried it your way - changing to:

 if (place % 2 === 0) {

and it appears to be working OK.

I then found the page http://www.jslint.com/lint.html and this suggested:

 if (!place % 2) {

and that appears to work as well!

Neither one came up with an error on the 'Online Lint', so I presume both are correct.

Thank you once again.

[Dormilich]

nope. the second one won’t work correctly. for exactly the reason the warning was mentioning.

PHP Code:

var x = 1;
alert(!x % 2); // 0 


bear in mind that Lint does look for certain string patterns, it does not run or analyse the JS code.

PS. Lint said something entirely different:

If you only care that a value is truthy or falsy, then use the short form.

pay attention to the first part of the sentence. This advice is exclusively about expressions that do not require type-safety! And the author assumed that you can differentiate between an expression and a variable.

[SpanishBoy]

OK thank you Dormilich.

I'll stick to the one that devnull69 suggested!

I guess I'm not cut out to be a great JavaScript programmer!

[Dormilich]

have you ever heard of the term "operator precedence" ?