JavaScript Number Methods

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JavaScript Number Methods
vinaykhatri

Vinay Khatri
Last updated on October 10, 2024

    In the last tutorial, we learned about JavaScript numbers and how to define them. When we use the simple number at the right side of the assignment operator, it will be treated as a primitive number, but if we use the JavaScript Number() object to create a number, it will be treated like a Number object.

    Example

    <script>
        let p_num = 20; // primitive number
        let o_num = new Number(20); // Number object
        console.log(typeof p_num);   // number 
        console.log(typeof o_num);  // object
    </script>

    JavaScript Number methods and properties

    Primitive number values like 1, 2, 3, etc., do not support methods and properties because methods and properties are part of objects, and only an object variable can access them. However, there are built-in methods and properties associated with the JS Number() object, and in the background, JS also makes sure that during runtime the same properties and method are also available for the primitive number values. This means all the properties and methods that are defined for Number() objects can also be accessed through primitive number values. In this JavaScript tutorial, we will learn all the major number methods that you should know.

    JS Number toString() method

    As the name suggests, the toString() method converts the number into a string and returns it. Example

    <script>
        let num = 200;
        let str_num = num.toString();    // string
        console.log(str_num);   // 200 
        console.log(typeof str_num);  // string
    </script>

    By default, the toString() method converts the number into a decimal string of base 10, but we also specify the base number as a parameter for number conversion.

    <script>
        let num = 200;
        let binary_num = num.toString(2); // binary
        let octal_num = num.toString(8);   //octal
        let decimal_num = num.toString(10);  //decimal(default)
        let hexa_num = num.toString(16);    //hexa
        console.log(binary_num);   //11001000
        console.log(octal_num);    // 310
        console.log(decimal_num);   // 200
        console.log(hexa_num);      //c8
    </script>

    JS Number toExponential() method

    The toExponential() method convert the number into an exponential format or notation and return it as a string. This method also accepts an integer value as an optional parameter that defines the number of characters after the decimal point. Example

    <script>
        let num = 91.23;
        let ex_1 = num.toExponential();
        let ex_2 = num.toExponential(4);
        console.log(ex_1);   //9.123e+1
        console.log(ex_2);   //9.1230e+1
    </script>
    The num.toExponential(); statement converts the 91.23 number into 9.123e+1 which is equivalent to 9.123 * 10 .

    JS Number toFixed() method

    The toFixed() method determines how many decimal point numbers should be placed after the number. Similar to the toString() and toExponential() method it also return a string. toFixed() method also accepts an optional parameter which default value is 0 which represents there should be no number after the decimal point and round the number if possible.

    Example

    <script>
        let num = 91.232345;
        let fix1 = num.toFixed()
        let fix2 = num.toFixed(0)
        let fix3 = num.toFixed(2)
        let fix4 = num.toFixed(4)
        console.log(fix1);    //91 (string)
        console.log(fix2);    //91 (string)
        console.log(fix3);    //91.23  (string)
        console.log(fix4);    //91.2323 (string)
    </script>

    toFixed() number comes in very handy when we want to specify fix number of decimal point numbers.

    JS Number toPrecision() method

    The toPrecision() method returns a specified length of number in a string format.

    Example

    <script>
        let num = 91.232345;
        let len1 = num.toPrecision(1);  // 1 digit long
        let len2 = num.toPrecision(2);   // 2 digit long
        let len4 = num.toPrecision(4);   // 4 digit long
        console.log(len1);   // 9e+1 = 9*10
        console.log(len2);    // 91
        console.log(len4);    // 91.23
    </script>
    The parameter value of toPrecision() must between 1 to 100, else it throw an error.

    JS Number valueOf() method

    The valueOf() method the value of the variable. It generally used to convert the Number object to a primitive number value.

    Example

    <script>
        let o_num = new Number(92.23234)
        let p_num = o_num.valueOf();
        console.log(p_num); // 92.23234
        console.log(typeof p_num) // number
    </script>

    Number conversion in JavaScript

    There are three Global methods present in JavaScript that can be used to convert a value to a number data type value.

    • Number()
    • parseFloat()
    • parseInt()

    Number() Method

    JavaScript provides a global method Number() that can convert any legal number value to a primitive number. Do not confuse the global Number() method with new Number() object both are different. The Number() method can be very useful when you want to convert a JavaScript number string to a number data type for arithmetic operations.

    Example

    <script>
        console.log(Number(true)); // 1
        console.log(Number(false));  //0 
        console.log(Number("112"));  //112
        console.log(Number("  112"));  //112
        console.log(Number("112  "));  //112
        console.log(Number("112.23"));  //112.23
        console.log(Number("112,234"));  // NaN
        console.log(Number("112 123"));  //NaN
        console.log(Number("112J"));    // NaN
        console.log(Number("112e1"));   // 1120
        console.log(Number(new Date("2021-02-31"))); // 1614729600000
    </script>

    Behind the code

    The Number() method converts the true and false to the corresponding 1 and 0 integer values. It also converts the Date object into Unix timestamp seconds. And if the specified argument is not a legal representation of number it returns NaN.

    parseInt() Method

    As the name suggests the parseInt() method is used to convert a number-like value to a primitive whole number. It converts the specified number-like value to an integer value. It parses the value from left to right and converts the value into a number if possible. It will return NaN if the passed value is not a legal number from left to right.

    Example

    <script>
        console.log(parseInt(true)); // NaN
        console.log(parseInt(false)); // NaN
        console.log(parseInt(-1)); // -1
        console.log(parseInt(2.23)); // 2
        console.log(parseInt("-2.32")); // -2
        console.log(parseInt("2 Years")); // 2
        console.log(parseInt("year 2")); // NaN
        console.log(parseInt("2 10 20")); // 2
        console.log(parseInt(new Date("2021-03-13"))); // NaN
    </script>

    Behind the code

    Unlike the Number() method parseInt() method can not convert the boolean and date object into corresponding integer values so it returns NaN instead.

    parseFloat() Method

    The parseFloat() method converts the number-like value into a floating-point number. As JS does not have a dedicated data type for float the parseFloat() method converts the passed argument to the primitive number data type. If parseFloat() is not able to parse the value into a number, it simply returns NaN.

    <script>
        console.log(parseFloat(true)); // NaN
        console.log(parseFloat(false)); // NaN
        console.log(parseFloat(-1)); // -1
        console.log(parseFloat(2.23)); // 2.32
        console.log(parseFloat("-2.32")); // -2.32
        console.log(parseFloat("2 Years")); // 2
        console.log(parseFloat("year 2")); // NaN
        console.log(parseFloat("2 10 20")); // 2
        console.log(parseFloat(new Date("2021-03-13"))); // NaN
    </script>

    For most cases, we use parseFloat() method to convert a JavaScript string value to a number value, but it does not work with boolean and Date objects. So as an alternative we can also use the Number() method to convert a string number to a primitive number data type.

    Number Properties

    There are few properties that are built-in to the Number object such as

    • MAX_VALUE : Return the possible largest number.
    • MIN_VALUE : Return the possible minimum number.
    • POSITIVE_INFINITY : Return the Positive Infinity
    • NEGETIVE_INFINITY : Return the negative Infinity
    • NaN : Return the Not a Number value.

    Example

    <script>
        console.log(Number.MAX_VALUE); // 1.7976931348623157e+308
        console.log(Number.MIN_VALUE); //5e-324
        console.log(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY); //Infinity
        console.log(Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY);//-Infinity
        console.log(Number.NaN); //NaN
    </script>

    All these above 5 properties are available for Number . We can not access these properties with normal variables.

    Example

    let a = 23;
    a.MAX_VALUE;  //undefined

    Summary

    • Mostly all the methods and properties are available for both Number objects and number data types.
    • toString(), toExponential() and toFixed() methods return string numeric value.
    • In JavaScript, to convert a string value to a number, we can use either of these three global methods, Number(), parseInt(), or parseFloat().
    • All these three methods are not number methods. These are global methods.
    • Properties like MAX_VALUE, MIN_VALUE, POSITIVE_INFINITY, NEGETIVE_INFINITY and NAN can only be accessed using the Number keyword.

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