What is the main difference between `==` and `===` in JavaScript?

The main difference between == and === in JavaScript lies in how they handle comparisons of values, specifically regarding type coercion. The operator == performs a comparison of values and allows for type coercion, meaning that if the values being compared are of different types, JavaScript will attempt to convert one or both values to a common type before making the comparison. For example, if you compare a string to a number, JavaScript will convert the string to a number for the comparison.

On the other hand, === is known as the strict equality operator. It checks both the value and the type for equality without performing any type coercion. This means that if the values being compared are not of the same type, === will return false, even if the values might be logically equivalent when converted.

Therefore, the correct understanding is that == checks for value equality with type coercion allowed, while === requires both the value and the type to be the same, leading to more predictable and less error-prone code.