toString()

[SuperSleuth]

I was wondering if there was a difference between doing the following:

alert((12345).toString().substr(0, 3)) and alert(("" + 12345+ "").substr(0, 3));

Well, not so much a difference as one being faster or more efficient than the other.

[Michael]

Why not just

alert("12345".substr(0,3));

[SuperSleuth]

I have a variable and it isn't a string, but I want to treat it like one when I document.write() it to the page.

[Michael]

Dec 1, 2009 13:45:49 GMT -8 SuperSleuth said:

I have a variable and it isn't a string, but I want to treat it like one when I document.write() it to the page.

If it's a variable, use .toString()

[Charles Stover]

There is no difference in terms of the outcome. The method it goes about achieving the outcome is different, and toString() is better.
The "" + variable + "" involves converting variable toString() and the appending nothing. Whereas variable.toString() just converts it to a string. Not to mention standards.

[SuperSleuth]

Yeah, I just came across this link (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1572708/is-conversion-to-string-using-int-value-bad-practice) and it mentions why toString (well, valueOf (Java), but it explains why the "" + variable is bad practice) is better.