What is a good way to emulate casting?

Question

From underscoresjs.org

  // Generate a unique integer id (unique within the entire client session).
  // Useful for temporary DOM ids.
  var idCounter = 0;
  _.uniqueId = function(prefix) {
    var id = ++idCounter + '';
    return prefix ? prefix + id : id;
  };

It appears that this line:

var id = ++idCounter + '';

casts a number to a string by concatenating it with the empty string.

Is this a good way to cast from a number to a string?

Answer 1

Yes, it's a good way to cast to a string.

If you want something more explicit, use .toString() .

var id = (++idCounter).toString();

As long as Number.prototype.toString() has not been overwritten, this will work.