What is the difference between the equality operators == and === in programming languages?

In JavaScript, the operators == and === are used for comparison, but there is an important difference:

• == is the loose equality operator. When comparing, it performs type coercion, meaning it tries to convert the values to the same type before comparison.
• === is the strict equality operator. It compares values without type conversion, returning true only if both the type and value are the same.

Example:

0 == '0'    // true, because '0' is coerced to the number 0
0 === '0'   // false, different types (number and string)
null == undefined  // true
null === undefined // false

It is recommended to use === to prevent unexpected results due to implicit type conversion.