Baseline Widely available
The less than (<
) operator returns true
if the left operand is less than the right operand, and false
otherwise.
console.log(5 < 3);
// Expected output: false
console.log(3 < 3);
// Expected output: false
// Compare bigint to number
console.log(3n < 5);
// Expected output: true
console.log("aa" < "ab");
// Expected output: true
Syntax Description
The operands are compared with multiple rounds of coercion, which can be summarized as follows:
[Symbol.toPrimitive]()
(with "number"
as hint), valueOf()
, and toString()
methods, in that order. The left operand is always coerced before the right one. Note that although [Symbol.toPrimitive]()
is called with the "number"
hint (meaning there's a slight preference for the object to become a number), the return value is not converted to a number, since strings are still specially handled.true
and false
are converted to 1 and 0 respectively.null
is converted to 0.undefined
is converted to NaN
.NaN
if they do not contain numeric values.NaN
, the operator returns false
.Other operators, including >
, >=
, and <=
, use the same algorithm as <
. There are two cases where all four operators return false
:
BigInt()
).NaN
. (For example, strings that cannot be converted to numbers, or undefined
.)For all other cases, the four operators have the following relationships:
x < y === !(x >= y);
x <= y === !(x > y);
x > y === y < x;
x >= y === y <= x;
Note: One observable difference between <
and >
is the order of coercion, especially if the coercion to primitive has side effects. All comparison operators coerce the left operand before the right operand.
"a" < "b"; // true
"a" < "a"; // false
"a" < "3"; // false
"\uD855\uDE51" < "\uFF3A"; // true
String to number comparison
"5" < 3; // false
"3" < 3; // false
"3" < 5; // true
"hello" < 5; // false
5 < "hello"; // false
"5" < 3n; // false
"3" < 5n; // true
Number to Number comparison
5 < 3; // false
3 < 3; // false
3 < 5; // true
Number to BigInt comparison
5n < 3; // false
3 < 5n; // true
Comparing Boolean, null, undefined, NaN
true < false; // false
false < true; // true
0 < true; // true
true < 1; // false
null < 0; // false
null < 1; // true
undefined < 3; // false
3 < undefined; // false
3 < NaN; // false
NaN < 3; // false
Comparison with side effects
Comparisons always coerce their operands to primitives. This means the same object may end up having different values within one comparison expression. For example, you may have two values that are both greater than and less than the other.
class Mystery {
static #coercionCount = -1;
valueOf() {
Mystery.#coercionCount++;
// The left operand is coerced first, so this will return 0
// Then it returns 1 for the right operand
return Mystery.#coercionCount % 2;
}
}
const l = new Mystery();
const r = new Mystery();
console.log(l < r && r < l);
// true
Warning: This can be a source of confusion. If your objects provide custom primitive conversion logic, make sure it is idempotent: multiple coercions should return the same value.
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