Is <boolean expression> && statement() the same as if(<boolean expression>) statement()?

Question

Are the two identical?

Suppose you have:

var x = true;

And then you have one of either:

x && doSomething();

or

if(x) doSomething();

Is there any differene whatsoever between the two syntaxes? Did I stumble across a nice bit of sugar?

Answer 1

Strictly speaking, they will produce the same results, but if you use the former case as a condition for something else, you will get dissimilar results. This is because in the case of x && doSomething(), doSomething() will return a value to signify its success.