Type Conversion & Coercion

JavaScript is a dynamically and loosely-typed language, which means you don't have to specify a variable's data type, and the engine can automatically change types during script execution. This automatic conversion is called 'implicit type conversion' or 'coercion'. Coercion happens in many situations, for example, when using the `==` operator (`'5' == 5` is true) or when using an arithmetic operator with a string and a number (`'5' + 5` results in the string `'55'`). While this can make the language flexible, it's also a common source of bugs if you're not aware of the rules. For more predictable and readable code, it's often better to use 'explicit type conversion'. This is when you, the developer, deliberately convert a value from one type to another. You can convert values to numbers using the `Number()` function or the unary plus operator (`+'5'`). To convert to a string, you can use the `String()` function or the `.toString()` method. To convert to a boolean, you use the `Boolean()` function, which is useful for understanding 'truthy' and 'falsy' values in JavaScript (e.g., `0`, `''`, `null`, `undefined`, `NaN` are falsy; all other values are truthy). Mastering both implicit and explicit conversion is key to writing robust JavaScript and understanding why certain operations behave the way they do.