Require === and !== (eqeqeq)

It is considered good practice to use the type-safe equality operators === and !== instead of their regular counterparts == and !=.

The reason for this is that == and != do type coercion which follows the rather obscure Abstract Equality Comparison Algorithm. For instance, the following statements are all considered true:

• [] == false
• [] == ![]
• 3 == "03"

If one of those occurs in an innocent-looking statement such as a == b the actual problem is very difficult to spot.

Rule Details

This rule is aimed at eliminating the type-unsafe equality operators.

Examples of incorrect code for this rule:

/*eslint eqeqeq: "error"*/

if (x == 42) { }

if ("" == text) { }

if (obj.getStuff() != undefined) { }

The --fix option on the command line automatically fixes some problems reported by this rule. A problem is only fixed if one of the operands is a typeof expression, or if both operands are literals with the same type.

Options

always

The "always" option (default) enforces the use of === and !== in every situation (except when you opt-in to more specific handling of null [see below]).

Examples of incorrect code for the "always" option:

/*eslint eqeqeq: ["error", "always"]*/

a == b
foo == true
bananas != 1
value == undefined
typeof foo == 'undefined'
'hello' != 'world'
0 == 0
true == true
foo == null

Examples of correct code for the "always" option:

/*eslint eqeqeq: ["error", "always"]*/

a === b
foo === true
bananas !== 1
value === undefined
typeof foo === 'undefined'
'hello' !== 'world'
0 === 0
true === true
foo === null

This rule optionally takes a second argument, which should be an object with the following supported properties:

• "null": Customize how this rule treats null literals. Possible values:
  • always (default) - Always use === or !==.
  • never - Never use === or !== with null.
  • ignore - Do not apply this rule to null.

smart

The "smart" option enforces the use of === and !== except for these cases:

• Comparing two literal values
• Evaluating the value of typeof
• Comparing against null

Examples of incorrect code for the "smart" option:

/*eslint eqeqeq: ["error", "smart"]*/

// comparing two variables requires ===
a == b

// only one side is a literal
foo == true
bananas != 1

// comparing to undefined requires ===
value == undefined

Examples of correct code for the "smart" option:

/*eslint eqeqeq: ["error", "smart"]*/

typeof foo == 'undefined'
'hello' != 'world'
0 == 0
true == true
foo == null

allow-null

Deprecated: Instead of using this option use "always" and pass a "null" option property with value "ignore". This will tell eslint to always enforce strict equality except when comparing with the null literal.

["error", "always", {"null": "ignore"}]

When Not To Use It

If you don't want to enforce a style for using equality operators, then it's safe to disable this rule. Source: http://eslint.org/docs/rules/

disallow empty block statements (no-empty)

Empty block statements, while not technically errors, usually occur due to refactoring that wasn't completed. They can cause confusion when reading code.

Rule Details

This rule disallows empty block statements. This rule ignores block statements which contain a comment (for example, in an empty catch or finally block of a try statement to indicate that execution should continue regardless of errors).

Examples of incorrect code for this rule:

/*eslint no-empty: "error"*/

if (foo) {
}

while (foo) {
}

switch(foo) {
}

try {
    doSomething();
} catch(ex) {

} finally {

}

Examples of correct code for this rule:

/*eslint no-empty: "error"*/

if (foo) {
    // empty
}

while (foo) {
    /* empty */
}

try {
    doSomething();
} catch (ex) {
    // continue regardless of error
}

try {
    doSomething();
} finally {
    /* continue regardless of error */
}

Options

This rule has an object option for exceptions:

• "allowEmptyCatch": true allows empty catch clauses (that is, which do not contain a comment)

allowEmptyCatch

Examples of additional correct code for this rule with the { "allowEmptyCatch": true } option:

/* eslint no-empty: ["error", { "allowEmptyCatch": true }] */
try {
    doSomething();
} catch (ex) {}

try {
    doSomething();
}
catch (ex) {}
finally {
    /* continue regardless of error */
}

When Not To Use It

If you intentionally use empty block statements then you can disable this rule.

Related Rules

• [no-empty-function](./no-empty-function.md) Source: http://eslint.org/docs/rules/