What is the !! (not not) operator in JavaScript?

I saw this code:

this.vertical = vertical !== undefined ? !!vertical : this.vertical;

It seems to be using !! as an operator, which I don't recognize. What does it do?

It converts Object to boolean. If it was falsy (e.g., 0, null, undefined, etc.), it would be false, otherwise, true.

!object  // Inverted Boolean
!!object // Noninverted Boolean, so true Boolean representation

So !! is not an operator; it's just the ! operator twice.

It is generally simpler to do:

Boolean(object) // Boolean

Real World Example "Test IE version":

const isIE8 = !! navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE 8.0/);
console.log(isIE8); // Returns true or false

If you ⇒

console.log(navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE 8.0/));
// Returns either an Array or null

But if you ⇒

console.log(!!navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE 8.0/));
// Returns either true or false

It's a horribly obscure way to do a type conversion.

! means NOT. So !true is false, and !false is true. !0 is true, and !1 is false.

So you're converting a value to a Boolean, inverting it, and then inverting it again.

    // Maximum Obscurity:
    val.enabled = !!userId;

    // Partial Obscurity:
    val.enabled = (userId != 0) ? true : false;

    // And finally, much easier to understand:
    val.enabled = (userId != 0);

    // Or just
    val.enabled = Boolean(userId);

Note: the middle two expressions aren't exactly equivalent to the first expression when it comes to some edge cases (when userId is [], for example) due to the way the != operator works and what values are considered truthy.

!!expr (two ! operators followed by an expression) returns the truthiness of the expression as true or false.

It makes sense when used on non-boolean expressions. Some examples:

Note: the Boolean function produces the exact same results, and it is more readable.

          !!false // false
           !!true // true

              !!0 // false
!!parseInt("foo") // false — NaN is falsy
              !!1 // true
             !!-1 // true  — negative number is truthy
          !!(1/0) // true  — Infinity is truthy

             !!"" // false — empty string is falsy
          !!"foo" // true  — non-empty string is truthy
        !!"false" // true  — ...even if it contains a falsy value

     !!window.foo // false — undefined value is falsy
      !!undefined // false — undefined primitive is falsy
           !!null // false — null is falsy

             !!{} // true  — an (empty) object is truthy
             !![] // true  — an (empty) array is truthy

Brew some tea:

!! is not an operator. It is the double-use of ! -- which is the logical "not" operator.

In theory:

! determines the "truth" of what a value is not:

• The truth is that false is not true (that's why !false results in true)

• The truth is that true is not false (that's why !true results in false)

!! determines the "truth" of what a value is not not:

• The truth is that true is not not true (that's why !!true results in true)

• The truth is that false is not not false (that's why !!false results in false)

What we wish to determine in the comparison is the "truth" about the value of a reference, not the value of the reference itself. There is a use-case where we might want to know the truth about a value, even if we expect the value to be false (or falsey), or if we expect the value not to be typeof boolean.

In practice:

Consider a concise function which detects feature functionality (and in this case, platform compatibility) by way of dynamic typing (aka "duck typing"). We want to write a function that returns true if a user's browser supports the HTML5 <audio> element, but we don't want the function to throw an error if <audio> is undefined; and we don't want to use try ... catch to handle any possible errors (because they're gross); and also we don't want to use a check inside the function that won't consistently reveal the truth about the feature (for example, document.createElement('audio') will still create an element called <audio> even if HTML5 <audio> is not supported).

Here are the three approaches:

// this won't tell us anything about HTML5 `<audio>` as a feature
var foo = function(tag, atr) { return document.createElement(tag)[atr]; }

// this won't return true if the feature is detected (although it works just fine)
var bar = function(tag, atr) { return !document.createElement(tag)[atr]; }

// this is the concise, feature-detecting solution we want
var baz = function(tag, atr) { return !!document.createElement(tag)[atr]; }

foo('audio', 'preload'); // returns "auto"
bar('audio', 'preload'); // returns false
baz('audio', 'preload'); // returns true

Each function accepts an argument for a <tag> and an attribute to look for, but they each return different values based on what the comparisons determine.

But wait, there's more!

Some of you probably noticed that in this specific example, one could simply check for a property using the slightly more performant means of checking if the object in question has a property. There are two ways to do this:

// the native `hasOwnProperty` method
var qux = function(tag, atr) { return document.createElement(tag).hasOwnProperty(atr); }

// the `in` operator
var quux = function(tag, atr) { return atr in document.createElement(tag); }

qux('audio', 'preload');  // returns true
quux('audio', 'preload'); // returns true

We digress...

However rare these situations may be, there may exist a few scenarios where the most concise, most performant, and thus most preferred means of getting true from a non-boolean, possibly undefined value is indeed by using !!. Hopefully this ridiculously clears it up.

!! converts the value to the right of it to its equivalent Boolean value. (Think poor man's way of "type-casting".) Its intent is usually to convey to the reader that the code does not care what value is in the variable, but what its "truth" value is.

!!foo applies the unary not operator twice and is used to cast to a Boolean type similar to the use of unary plus +foo to cast to a number and concatenating an empty string ''+foo to cast to a string.

Instead of these hacks, you can also use the constructor functions corresponding to the primitive types (without using new) to explicitly cast values, i.e.,

Boolean(foo) === !!foo
Number(foo)  === +foo
String(foo)  === ''+foo

So many answers doing half the work. Yes, !!X could be read as "the truthiness of X [represented as a Boolean]". But !! isn't, practically speaking, so important for figuring out whether a single variable is (or even if many variables are) truthy or falsy. !!myVar === true is the same as just myVar. Comparing !!X to a "real" Boolean isn't really useful.

The only thing you gain with !! is the ability to check the truthiness of multiple variables against each other in a repeatable, standardized (and JSLint friendly) fashion.

Simply casting :(

That is...

• 0 === false is false.
• !!0 === false is true.

The above's not so useful. if (!0) gives you the same results as if (!!0 === false). I can't think of a good case for casting a variable to Boolean and then comparing to a "true" Boolean.

See "== and !=" from JSLint's directions (note: site has changed; this is an archived copy) for a little on why:

The == and != operators do type coercion before comparing. This is bad because it causes ' \t\r\n' == 0 to be true. This can mask type errors. JSLint cannot reliably determine if == is being used correctly, so it is best to not use == and != at all and to always use the more reliable === and !== operators instead.

If you only care that a value is truthy or falsy, then use the short form. Instead of
(foo != 0)

just say
(foo)

and instead of
(foo == 0)

say
(!foo)

Note that there are some unintuitive cases where a Boolean will be cast to a number (true is cast to 1 and false to 0) when comparing a Boolean to a number. In this case, !! might be mentally useful. Though, again, these are cases where you're comparing a non-Boolean to a hard-typed Boolean, which is, in my opinion, a serious mistake. if (-1) is still the way to go here.

And things get even crazier depending on your engine. WScript, for instance, wins the prize.

function test()
{
    return (1 === 1);
}
WScript.echo(test());

Because of some historical Windows jive, that'll output -1 in a message box! Try it in a cmd.exe prompt and see! But WScript.echo(-1 == test()) still gives you 0, or WScript's false. Look away. It's hideous.

Comparing truthiness :)

But what if I have two values I need to check for equal truthiness/falsiness?

Pretend we have myVar1 = 0; and myVar2 = undefined;.

• myVar1 === myVar2 is 0 === undefined and is obviously false.
• !!myVar1 === !!myVar2 is !!0 === !!undefined and is true! Same truthiness! (In this case, both "have a truthiness of falsy".)

So the only place you'd really need to use "Boolean-cast variables" would be if you had a situation where you're checking if both variables have the same truthiness, right? That is, use !! if you need to see if two variables are both truthy or both falsy (or not), that is, of equal (or not) truthiness.

I can't think of a great, non-contrived use case for that offhand. Maybe you have "linked" fields in a form?

if (!!customerInput.spouseName !== !!customerInput.spouseAge ) {
    errorObjects.spouse = "Please either enter a valid name AND age "
        + "for your spouse or leave all spouse fields blank.";
}

So now if you have a truthy for both or a falsy for both spouse name and age, you can continue. Otherwise you've only got one field with a value (or a very early arranged marriage) and need to create an extra error on your errorObjects collection.

Though even in this case, the !! really is superfluous. One ! was enough to cast to a Boolean, and you're just checking equality.

EDIT 24 Oct 2017, 6 Feb 19:

Third-party libraries that expect explicit Boolean values

Here's an interesting case... !! might be useful when third-party libraries expect explicit Boolean values.

React

For instance, False in JSX (React) has a special meaning that's not triggered on simple falsiness. If you tried returning something like the following in your JSX, expecting an int in messageCount...

{messageCount && <div>You have messages!</div>}

... you might be surprised to see React render a 0 when you have zero messages. You have to explicitly return false for JSX not to render. The above statement returns 0, which JSX happily renders, as it should. It can't tell you didn't have Count: {messageCount}.

• One fix involves the bangbang, which coerces 0 into !!0, which is false: {!!messageCount && <div>You have messages!</div>}

• JSX' documentation suggests you be more explicit, write self-commenting code, and use a comparison to force to a Boolean. {messageCount > 0 && <div>You have messages!</div>}

• I'm more comfortable handling falsiness myself with a ternary -- {messageCount ? <div>You have messages!</div> : false}

TypeScript

The same deal in TypeScript: If you have a function that returns a Boolean (or you're assigning a value to a Boolean variable), you [usually] can't return/assign a boolean-y value; it has to be a strongly typed boolean. This means, iff myObject is strongly typed, return !myObject; works for a function returning a Boolean, but return myObject; doesn't. You have to return !!myObject (or cast to the proper Boolean another way) to match TypeScript's expectations.

The exception for TypeScript? If myObject was an any, you're back in JavaScript's Wild West and can return it without !!, even if your return type is a Boolean.

Keep in mind that these are JSX and TypeScript conventions, not ones inherent to JavaScript.

But if you see strange 0s in your rendered JSX, think loose falsy management.

It's just the logical NOT operator, twice. It's used to convert something to Boolean, e.g.:

true === !!10

false === !!0

It converts the suffix to a Boolean value.

It seems that the !! operator results in a double negation.

var foo = "Hello, World!";

!foo // Result: false
!!foo // Result: true

It's a double not operation. The first ! converts the value to Boolean and inverts its logical value. The second ! inverts the logical value back.

It simulates the behavior of the Boolean() casting function. The first NOT returns a Boolean value no matter what operand it is given. The second NOT negates that Boolean value and so gives the true Boolean value of a variable. The end result is the same as using the Boolean() function on a value.

!! is using the NOT operation twice together. ! converts the value to a Boolean and reverses it, so using it twice, showing the Boolean (false or true) of that value. Here is a simple example to see how !! works:

At first, the place you have:

var zero = 0;

Then you do !0. It will be converted to Boolean and be evaluated to true, because 0 is falsy, so you get the reversed value and converted to Boolean, so it gets evaluated to true.

!zero; //true

But we don't want the reversed Boolean version of the value, so we can reverse it again to get our result! That's why we use another !.

Basically, !! makes us sure the value we get is Boolean, not falsy, truthy, string, etc...

So it's like using the Boolean function in JavaScript, but an easier and shorter way to convert a value to Boolean:

var zero = 0;
!!zero; //false

! is "Boolean not", which essentially typecasts the value of "enable" to its boolean opposite. The second ! flips this value. So, !!enable means "not not enable," giving you the value of enable as a Boolean.

I think worth mentioning is that a condition combined with logical AND/OR will not return a Boolean value, but the last success or first fail in case of && and the first success or last fail in case of || of the condition chain.

res = (1 && 2); // res is 2
res = (true && alert) // res is function alert()
res = ('foo' || alert) // res is 'foo'

In order to cast the condition to a true Boolean literal we can use the double negation:

res = !!(1 && 2); // res is true
res = !!(true && alert) // res is true
res = !!('foo' || alert) // res is true

It's not a single operator; it's two. It's equivalent to the following and is a quick way to cast a value to Boolean.

val.enabled = !(!enable);

The !! construct is a simple way of turning any JavaScript expression into its Boolean equivalent.

For example: !!"he shot me down" === true and !!0 === false.

It forces all things to Boolean.

For example:

console.log(undefined);   // -> undefined
console.log(!undefined);  // -> true
console.log(!!undefined); // -> false

console.log('abc');   // -> abc
console.log(!'abc');  // -> false
console.log(!!'abc'); // -> true

console.log(0 === false);   // -> false
console.log(!0 === false);  // -> false
console.log(!!0 === false); // -> true

I suspect this is a leftover from C++ where people override the ! operator, but not the bool operator.

So to get a negative (or positive) answer in that case, you would first need to use the ! operator to get a Boolean, but if you wanted to check the positive case you would use !!.

The if and while statements and the ? operator use truth values to determine which branch of code to run. For example, zero and NaN numbers and the empty string are false, but other numbers and strings are true. Objects are true, but the undefined value and null are both false.

The double negation operator !! calculates the truth value of a value. It's actually two operators, where !!x means !(!x), and behaves as follows:

• If x is a false value, !x is true, and !!x is false.
• If x is a true value, !x is false, and !!x is true.

When used at the top level of a Boolean context (if, while, or ?), the !! operator is behaviorally a no-op. For example, if (x) and if (!!x) mean the same thing.

Practical uses

However it has several practical uses.

One use is to lossily compress an object to its truth value, so that your code isn't holding a reference to a big object and keeping it alive. Assigning !!some_big_object to a variable instead of some_big_object lets go of it for the garbage collector. This is useful for cases that produce either an object or a false value such as null or the undefined value, such as browser feature detection.

Another use, which I mentioned in an answer about C's corresponding !! operator, is with "lint" tools that look for common typos and print diagnostics. For example, in both C and JavaScript, a few common typos for Boolean operations produce other behaviors whose output isn't quite as Boolean:

• if (a = b) is assignment followed by use of the truth value of b; if (a == b) is an equality comparison.
• if (a & b) is a bitwise AND; if (a && b) is a logical AND. 2 & 5 is 0 (a false value); 2 && 5 is true.

The !! operator reassures the lint tool that what you wrote is what you meant: do this operation, then take the truth value of the result.

A third use is to produce logical XOR and logical XNOR. In both C and JavaScript, a && b performs a logical AND (true if both sides are true), and a & b performs a bitwise AND. a || b performs a logical OR (true if at least one are true), and a | b performs a bitwise OR. There's a bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) as a ^ b, but there's no built-in operator for logical XOR (true if exactly one side is true). You might, for example, want to allow the user to enter text in exactly one of two fields. What you can do is convert each to a truth value and compare them: !!x !== !!y.

This question has been answered quite thoroughly, but I'd like to add an answer that I hope is as simplified as possible, making the meaning of !! as simple to grasp as can be.

Because JavaScript has what are called "truthy" and "falsy" values, there are expressions that when evaluated in other expressions will result in a true or false condition, even though the value or expression being examined is not actually true or false.

For instance:

if (document.getElementById('myElement')) {
    // Code block
}

If that element does in fact exist, the expression will evaluate as true, and the code block will be executed.

However:

if (document.getElementById('myElement') == true) {
    // Code block
}

...will not result in a true condition, and the code block will not be executed, even if the element does exist.

Why? Because document.getElementById() is a "truthy" expression that will evaluate as true in this if() statement, but it is not an actual Boolean value of true.

The double "not" in this case is quite simple. It is simply two nots back to back.

The first one simply "inverts" the truthy or falsy value, resulting in an actual Boolean type, and then the second one "inverts" it back again to its original state, but now in an actual Boolean value. That way you have consistency:

if (!!document.getElementById('myElement')) {}

and

if (!!document.getElementById('myElement') == true) {}

will both return true, as expected.

It is double Boolean negation. It is often used to check if a value is not undefined.

I just wanted to add that

if(variableThing){
  // do something
}

is the same as

if(!!variableThing){
  // do something
}

But this can be an issue when something is undefined.

// a === undefined, b is an empty object (eg. b.asdf === undefined)
var a, b = {};

// Both of these give error a.foo is not defined etc.
// you'd see the same behavior for !!a.foo and !!b.foo.bar

a.foo 
b.foo.bar

// This works -- these return undefined

a && a.foo
b.foo && b.foo.bar
b && b.foo && b.foo.bar

The trick here is the chain of &&s will return the first falsey value it finds -- and this can be fed to an if statement etc. So if b.foo is undefined, it will return undefined and skip the b.foo.bar statement, and we get no error.

The above return undefined but if you have an empty string, false, null, 0, undefined those values will return and soon as we encounter them in the chain -- [] and {} are both "truthy" and we will continue down the so-called "&& chain" to the next value to the right.

P.S. Another way of doing the above (b && b.foo) is (b || {}).foo. Those are equivalent, because if b is undefined then b || {} will be {}, and you'll be accessing a value in an empty object (no error) instead of trying to access a value within "undefined" (causes an error).

So, (b || {}).foo is the same as b && b.foo and ((b || {}).foo || {}).bar is the same as b && b.foo && b.foo.bar.

There are tons of great answers here, but if you've read down this far, this helped me to 'get it'. Open the console in Chrome (etc.), and start typing:

!(!(1))
!(!(0))
!(!('truthy')) 
!(!(null))
!(!(''))
!(!(undefined))
!(!(new Object())
!(!({}))
woo = 'hoo'
!(!(woo))
...etc., etc., until the light goes on ;)

Naturally, these are all the same as merely typing !!someThing, but the added parentheses might help make it more understandable.

!!x is shorthand for Boolean(x).

The first bang forces the JavaScript engine to run Boolean(x), but it also has the side effect of inverting the value. So the second bang undoes the side effect.

After seeing all these great answers, I would like to add another reason for using !!. Currently I'm working in Angular 2-4 (TypeScript) and I want to return a Boolean as false when my user is not authenticated. If he isn't authenticated, the token-string would be null or "". I can do this by using the next block of code:

public isAuthenticated(): boolean {
   return !!this.getToken();
}

Here is a piece of code from AngularJS:

var requestAnimationFrame = $window.requestAnimationFrame ||
                            $window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame ||
                            $window.mozRequestAnimationFrame;

var rafSupported = !!requestAnimationFrame;

Their intention is to set rafSupported to true or false based on the availability of function in requestAnimationFrame.

It can be achieved by checking in the following way in general:

if(typeof requestAnimationFrame === 'function')
    rafSupported =true;
else
    rafSupported =false;

The short way could be using !!

rafSupported = !!requestAnimationFrame;

So if requestAnimationFrame was assigned a function then !requestAnimationFrame would be false and one more ! of it would be true.

If requestAnimationFrame was assigned undefined then !requestAnimationFrame would be true and one more ! of it would be false.

Use the logical not operator two times.

It means !true = false and !!true = true.

It returns the Boolean value of a variable.

Instead, the Boolean class can be used.

(Please read the code descriptions.)

var X = "test"; // The X value is "test" as a String value
var booleanX = !!X // booleanX is `true` as a Boolean value because non-empty strings evaluates as `true` in Boolean
var whatIsXValueInBoolean = Boolean(X) // whatIsXValueInBoolean is `true` again
console.log(Boolean(X) === !!X) // Writes `true`

Namely, Boolean(X) = !!X in use.

Please check code snippet out below ↓

let a = 0
console.log("a: ", a) // Writes a value in its kind
console.log("!a: ", !a) // Writes '0 is NOT true in Boolean' value as Boolean - so that's true. In Boolean, 0 means false and 1 means true.
console.log("!!a: ", !!a) // Writes 0 value in Boolean. 0 means false.
console.log("Boolean(a): ", Boolean(a)) // Equals `!!a`
console.log("\n") // Newline

a = 1
console.log("a: ", a)
console.log("!a: ", !a)
console.log("!!a: ", !!a) // Writes 1 value in Boolean
console.log("\n") // Newline

a = ""
console.log("a: ", a)
console.log("!a: ", !a) // Writes '"" is NOT true in Boolean' value as Boolean - so that's true. In Boolean, empty strings, null and undefined values mean false and if there is a string it means true.
console.log("!!a: ", !!a) // Writes "" value in Boolean
console.log("\n") // Newline

a = "test"
console.log("a: ", a) // Writes a value in its kind
console.log("!a: ", !a)
console.log("!!a: ", !!a) // Writes "test" value in Boolean

console.log("Boolean(a) === !!a: ", Boolean(a) === !!a) // writes true

It is important to remember the evaluations to true and false in JavaScript:

• Everything with a "Value" is true (namely truthy), for example:

  • 101,
  • 3.1415,
  • -11,
  • "Lucky Brain",
  • new Object()
  • and, of course, true

• Everything without a "Value" is false (namely falsy), for example:

  • 0,
  • -0,
  • "" (empty string),
  • undefined,
  • null,
  • NaN (not a number)
  • and, of course, false

Applying the "logical not" operator (!) evaluates the operand, converting it to boolean and then negating it. Applying it twice will negate the negation, effectively converting the value to boolean. Not applying the operator will just be a regular assignment of the exact value. Examples:

var value = 23; // number
var valueAsNegatedBoolean = !value; // boolean falsy (because 23 is truthy)
var valueAsBoolean = !!value; // boolean truthy
var copyOfValue = value; // number 23

var value2 = 0;
var value2AsNegatedBoolean = !value2; // boolean truthy (because 0 is falsy)
var value2AsBoolean = !!value2; // boolean falsy
var copyOfValue2 = value2; // number 0

• value2 = value; assigns the exact object value even if it is not boolean hence value2 won't necessarily end up being boolean.
• value2 = !!value; assigns a guaranteed boolean as the result of the double negation of the operand value and it is equivalent to the following but much shorter and readable:

if (value) {
  value2 = true;
} else {
  value2 = false;
}