askvity

Is 0 == true?

Published in Boolean Logic 2 mins read

No, 0 == true is generally false in most programming languages.

Here's a breakdown:

The question hinges on how programming languages interpret boolean values. The reference provides insight:

Boolean values are simply expressed as integers 0 and 1 . FALSE and TRUE are just macros. That's where the association of 0 == false for modern programmers comes from.17-Mar-2022

This means:

  • 0 is typically equivalent to false.
  • 1 is typically equivalent to true.

Therefore, comparing 0 to true is generally the same as comparing false to true, which yields false.

Value Boolean Equivalent
0 false
1 true

Examples:

  • C/C++: In C and C++, 0 is false, and any non-zero value is true. Therefore, 0 == true would evaluate to false.
  • Python: In Python, 0 is considered false and 1 is considered true. The expression 0 == True evaluates to False.
  • JavaScript: JavaScript follows similar rules. 0 == true evaluates to false. Note that using strict equality 0 === true also evaluates to false because they are of different data types.
  • PHP: In PHP, 0 == true evaluates to false.

In summary, while the exact behavior might vary slightly between languages, the core principle is that 0 represents false and 1 represents true. Thus, 0 == true is almost always false.

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