FilterService: match modes "equals" and "not equals" do not work with numeric filter on fractional values

[lephyrus]

Describe the bug

The use case is a table with a column that has numeric values which are formatted to have a fixed number of decimal digits, like so: 1.0, 1.5, etc.

A column filter of type "numeric" works as expected when the match modes "less than (or equal to)" or "greater than (or equal to)" are used. However, using "(not) equals" always yield zero matching rows.

The problem is that while 1 == '1.0' or 1.0 == '1.0' or 1.000 == '1.0' is all true, which is the comparison for the working match modes, the "(not) equals" match modes convert both values to strings first, in which case the result is always false.

Environment

Since there's a StackBlitz reproduction, I don't think our environment matters.

Reproducer

https://stackblitz.com/edit/9nkhvs

Angular version

17.2.4

PrimeNG version

17.9.0

Build / Runtime

Angular CLI App

Language

TypeScript

Node version (for AoT issues node --version)

20.10.0

Browser(s)

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

In the linked StackBlitz:

1. Use the filter on the Number column with the "greater than" match mode: see that it works.
2. Use the filter on the Number column with the "equals" match mode: see that it does NOT work.

Expected behavior

• Using the match mode "equals" with a value of 2 should yield the row with the value 2.0.
• Using the match mode "not equals" with a value of 2 should yield all other rows.