How are Javascript array compared?

Question

Is there a standard defined how would JavaScript be compared, on Chrome console I get this

[10,0,0] > [1,0,0]
true
[10,0,0] > [5,0,0]
false
[5, 0, 0, 0] < [10, 0, 0, 0] //repeatable
false

[10,0,0,0] > [9,0,0,0]
false
[11,0,0,0] > [10,0,0,0]
true

Which is highly unintutive, and I can't even make sense what logic is being applied, and they look repeatable so doesn't look based on object id(ref) etc, so is there any documentation for it?

Well, maybe ECMAScript specs will help: http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/#sec-11.8.5 — Stasik, Jun 06 '13 at 06:49
Is it implicitly calling toString and comparing alphabetically? — Chris Farmer, Jun 06 '13 at 06:50
This answer on similar question can be useful : http://stackoverflow.com/a/8329014/2393432 — Ivan Antropov, Jun 06 '13 at 06:50
you can see this question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7837456/comparing-two-arrays-in-javascript — pinkpanther, Jun 06 '13 at 06:51
One more thread might help you. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7837456/comparing-two-arrays-in-javascript — Sudeep nayak, Jun 06 '13 at 07:01

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '13 at 06:56

4

JavaScript arrays are converted to strings and the strings are then compared. So.

[10,0,0].toString() => "10,0,0"
[5,0,0].toString() => "5,0,0"

Strings are compared lexicographically, so "5,0,0" is bigger than "10,0,0".

answered Jun 06 '13 at 06:56

Stasik

2,568
1
25
44

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 06:51

1

Something like this may help you,

JSON.stringify([2,2,2]) === JSON.stringify([2,2,2]); //true

Cheers :).

answered Jun 06 '13 at 06:51

Indrajit Das

96
4

Why would this help him? – Chris Farmer Jun 06 '13 at 06:53
By this we can straight away compare two array as String. – Indrajit Das Jun 06 '13 at 06:56

How are Javascript array compared?

2 Answers2