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Why does [NaN].includes(NaN) return true in JavaScript?

I'm familiar with NaN being "weird" in JavaScript, i.e., NaN === NaN always returns false, as described here. So one should not make === comparisons to check for NaN, but use isNaN(..) instead.

So I was surprised to discover that

> [NaN].includes(NaN)
true

This seems inconsistent. Why have this behavior?

How does it even work? Does the includes method specifically check isNaN?

10 months ago · Santiago Trujillo
2 answers
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0

According to MDN's document say that

Note: Technically speaking, includes() uses the sameValueZero algorithm to determine whether the given element is found.

const x = NaN, y = NaN;
console.log(x == y); // false                -> using ‘loose’ equality
console.log(x === y); // false               -> using ‘strict’ equality
console.log([x].indexOf(y)); // -1 (false)   -> using ‘strict’ equality
console.log(Object.is(x, y)); // true        -> using ‘Same-value’ equality
console.log([x].includes(y)); // true        -> using ‘Same-value-zero’ equality


More detailed explanation:

  1. Same-value-zero equality similar to same-value equality, but +0 and −0 are considered equal.
  2. Same-value equality is provided by the Object.is() method: The only difference between Object.is() and === is in their treatment of signed zeroes and NaNs.

enter image description here


Additional resources:

  • Which equals operator (== vs ===) should be used in JavaScript comparisons?
  • Array.prototype.includes vs. Array.prototype.indexOf
  • Are +0 and -0 the same?
10 months ago · Santiago Trujillo Report

0

The .includes() method uses SameValueZero algorithm for checking the equality of two values and it considers the NaN value to be equal to itself.

The SameValueZero algorithm is similar to SameValue, but the only difference is that the SameValueZero algorithm considers +0 and -0 to be equal.

The Object.is() method uses SameValue and it returns true for NaN.

console.log(Object.is(NaN, NaN));

The behavior of .includes() method is slightly different from the .indexOf() method; the .indexOf() method uses strict equality comparison to compare values and strict equality comparison doesn't consider NaN to be equal to itself.

console.log([NaN].indexOf(NaN));

Information about different equality checking algorithms can be found at MDN:

MDN - Equality comparisons and sameness

10 months ago · Santiago Trujillo Report
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