Ways to Compare Two Strings in JavaScript

A string is a series of characters that stores numbers, alphabets, white spaces, and symbols. We can make a string in JavaScript by enclosing the characters in double quotes, single quotes or backticks.

Example:

It is sometimes required to compare two strings for login authentication and other reasons. There are various ways to compare strings in JavaScript that we will study in this article.

The methods which are used to compare strings are as follows:

1. localeCompare
2. Mathematical Operators

Let us comprehend each with the help of examples.

localeCompare

It is a method that is utilized to compare two strings in the current locale on the basis of alphabetical order.

Syntax:

This method returns 1, 0, or -1.

If the string1 is greater than string2 then this method returns 1.

If the string1 is smaller than string2 then this method returns -1.

If the string1 is equal to string2 then this method returns 0.

Following are the demonstrations to compare two strings utilizing localeCompare() method:

Demo 1:

We are going to compare string1 "Welcome" with string2 "here!" and witness the output.

Code:

Output:

1 

Explanation:

The string1 "Welcome" is greater than string2 "here!" in the above demo so it returns 1. The alphabet w comes after h according to the alphabetical order which makes the string1 greater than string2.

Demo 2:

We will compare string1 "tomato" with string2 "zomato" and see the result.

Code:

Output

-1 

Explanation:

In the above demo, the string1 "tomato" is smaller than string2 "zomato" so it returns -1. According to the alphabetical order, t comes before z which makes the string1 smaller than string2.

Demo 3:

We will compare string1 "burger" with string2 "burger" and see the result.

Code:

Output:

0 

Explanation:

In the above demo, the order of all alphabets of string1 "burger" is equal to string2 "burger" so it returns 0.

Demo 4:

We will compare string1 "swag" with string2 "Swag" and see the result.

Code:

Output

-1 

Explanation:

In the above demo, the string1 "swag" is smaller than string2 "Swag" because small s is smaller than capital S. It returns -1.

Note: Some browsers return any value less than 0 for a smaller string instead of -1 and any value greater than 0 for a greater string instead of 1.

Mathematical Operators

We can utilize mathematical operators such as less than (<), greater than (>), or equal to (==). It is similar to the localeCompare method which means it also compares two strings on the basis of alphabetical order.

Following are the demonstrations to compare two strings using mathematical operators:

Demo 1:

We will use the less than (<) mathematical operator to check whether string1 is smaller than string2 or not. It returns a boolean value, i.e., true or false.

Code:

Output:

false 

Explanation:

In the above demo, string1 "BMW" is greater than string2 "Audi" on the basis of alphabetical order, so it returns false.

Demo 2:

We will use the greater than (>) mathematical operator to check whether string1 is greater than string2 or not.

Code:

Output:

true 

Explanation:

In the above demo, string1 "html" is greater than string2 "css" on the basis of alphabetical order, so it returns true.

Demo 3:

We will use equal to (==) mathematical operator to check whether the string1 is equal to string2 or not.

Code:

Output:

true 

Explanation:

In the above demo, string1 "JavaScript" is smaller than string2 "JavaScript" on the basis of alphabetical order, so it returns true.

Conclusion:

We have understood string comparison in JavaScript in this article. We can compare strings using the localeCompare() method and mathematical operators such as less than (<), greater than (>) or equals (==). We have comprehended each method with the help of demonstrations.