valueOf() vs. toString() in Javascript

Question

In Javascript every object has a valueOf() and toString() method. I would have thought that the toString() method got invoked whenever a string conversion is called for, but apparently it is trumped by valueOf().

For example, the code

var x = {toString: function() {return "foo"; },
         valueOf: function() {return 42; }};
window.console.log ("x="+x);
window.console.log ("x="+x.toString());

will print

x=42
x=foo

This strikes me as backwards .. if x were a complex number, for example, I would want valueOf() to give me its magnitude, but whenever I wanted to convert to a string I would want something like "a+bi". And I wouldn't want to have to call toString() explicitly in contexts that implied a string.

Is this just the way it is?

Answer 1

The reason why ("x="+x) gives "x=value" and not "x=tostring" is the following. When evaluating "+", javascript first collects primitive values of the operands, and then decides if addition or concatenation should be applied, based on the type of each primitive.

So, this is how you think it works

a + b:
    pa = ToPrimitive(a)
    if(pa is string)
       return concat(pa, ToString(b))
    else
       return add(pa, ToNumber(b))

and this is what actually happens

a + b:
    pa = ToPrimitive(a)
    pb = ToPrimitive(b)*
    if(pa is string || pb is string)
       return concat(ToString(pa), ToString(pb))
    else
       return add(ToNumber(pa), ToNumber(pb))

That is, toString is applied to the result of valueOf, not to your original object.

For further reference, check out section 11.6.1 The Addition operator ( + ) in the ECMAScript Language Specification.

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*When called in string context, ToPrimitive does invoke toString, but this is not the case here, because '+' doesn't enforce any type context.