# Type Conversions

Domains:

Most of the time, operators and functions automatically convert a value to the right type. That's called "type conversion".

For example, alert automatically converts any value to a string to show it. Mathematical operations convert values to numbers.

There are also cases when we need to explicitly convert a value to put things right.

In this chapter we don't cover objects yet. Here we study primitives first. Later, after we learn objects, we'll see how object conversion works in the chapter <info:object-toprimitive>.

## ToString

String conversion happens when we need the string form of a value.

For example, alert(value) does it to show the value.

We can also use a call String(value) function for that:

let value = true;

*!*
value = String(value); // now value is a string "true"
*/!*


String conversion is mostly obvious. A false becomes "false", null becomes "null" etc.

## ToNumber

Numeric conversion happens in mathematical functions and expressions automatically.

For example, when division / is applied to non-numbers:

alert( "6" / "2" ); // 3, strings are converted to numbers


We can use a Number(value) function to explicitly convert a value:

let str = "123";
let num = Number(str); // becomes a number 123


Explicit conversion is usually required when we read a value from a string-based source like a text form, but we expect a number to be entered.

If the string is not a valid number, the result of such conversion is NaN, for instance:

let age = Number("an arbitrary string instead of a number");


Numeric conversion rules:

Value Becomes...
undefined NaN
null 0
true and false 1 and 0
string Whitespaces from the start and the end are removed. Then, if the remaining string is empty, the result is 0. Otherwise, the number is "read" from the string. An error gives NaN.

Examples:

alert( Number("   123   ") ); // 123


Please note that null and undefined behave differently here: null becomes a zero, while undefined becomes NaN.

Almost all mathematical operations convert values to numbers. With a notable exception of the addition +. If one of the added values is a string, then another one is also converted to a string.

Then it concatenates (joins) them:

alert( 1 + '2' ); // '12' (string to the right)
alert( '1' + 2 ); // '12' (string to the left)


That only happens when at least one of the arguments is a string. Otherwise, values are converted to numbers.

## ToBoolean

Boolean conversion is the simplest one.

It happens in logical operations (later we'll meet condition tests and other kinds of them), but also can be performed manually with the call of Boolean(value).

The conversion rule:

• Values that are intuitively "empty", like 0, an empty string, null, undefined and NaN become false.
• Other values become true.

For instance:

alert( Boolean(1) ); // true



Please note: the string with zero \"0\" is true. Some languages (namely PHP) treat "0" as false. But in JavaScript a non-empty string is always true.

alert( Boolean("0") ); // true
alert( Boolean(" ") ); // spaces, also true (any non-empty string is true)

## Summary

There are three most widely used type conversions: to string, to number and to boolean.

ToString - Occurs when we output something, can be performed with String(value). The conversion to string is usually obvious for primitive values.

ToNumber - Occurs in math operations, can be performed with Number(value).

The conversion follows the rules:

• Value undefined becomes NaN
• Value null becomes 0
• Value true/false becomes  1 / 0
• Value string  - The string is read "as is", whitespaces from both sides are ignored. An empty string becomes 0. An error gives NaN

ToBoolean - Occurs in logical operations, or can be performed with Boolean(value).

Follows the rules:

• Values 0, null, undefined, NaN, "" become false
• any other values become true

Most of these rules are easy to understand and memorize. The notable exceptions where people usually make mistakes are:

• undefined is NaN as a number, not 0.
• "0" and space-only strings like "   " are true as a boolean.

Objects are not covered here, we'll return to them later in the chapter <info:object-toprimitive> that is devoted exclusively to objects, after we learn more basic things about JavaScript.

Page structure
Terms