I have a function that converts a string representation of number of any valid number base and its radix. How do I correctly handle invalid numbers (like using A-K chars in bases < 11)? In invalid cases, I would like to return -1.
So far, I was able to achieve some degree of success with isNan() check, but it breaks on decimal base (convert("5A6E", 10)).
My code so far:
function convert(strNumber, radix) {
a = parseInt(strNumber, radix)
if(isNaN(a)){
return -1
}
else {
return a
}
}
In your breakage example "5A6E" you get back 5 because that's how parseInt works - see the examples in the documentation:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/parseInt
At the bottom of the above page, you will find a section titled "A stricter parse function" it appears to do what you are looking for using RegEx.
Update: In thinking about this further, the "Stricker parse function" is only going to work for base 10. To be more flexible you should add a function that looks at the radix, and based on that, checks for invalid characters in strNumber, returning -1 if any are found and calling parseInt if not.
For instance, if radix = 2, all characters except 0 and 1 are invalid. If it's 11, all characters but 0-9 and 'a' are invalid.
Tedious, but it will do what you want.
Related
For examle I need to check string '69S0' - is it correct a 16x based number. I do not need to parse just check true or false.
So, what is an effcient way to do this?
You can check to see if the string contains any invalid digits. The valid digits are 0-9 and ABCDEF, so:
if (/^[0-9a-f]+$/i.test(theString)) {
// yes, valid hex
} else {
// not valid hex
}
Alternatively, you could parse the string using the Number function (note this logic is the other way around):
if (isNaN(Number("0x" + theString)) {
// not valid hex
} else {
// yes, valid hex
}
That works because Number accepts certain number base prefixes (0x = hex, 0b = binary, and 0o = octal), and returns NaN if the entire string isn't a valid number using that number base. (And unlike Number(""), which returns 0, Number("0x") returns NaN, so it'll work if theString is blank, too.)
In comments you mentioned that you couldn't rely on parseInt, and you're right: Instead of throwing an error or returning NaN if there's an invalid digit, parseInt just stops parsing and returns what it found at the beginning of the string. (Details in this answer.)
I am unable to understand this:
parseFloat('1/2') == 1 Not Expected
parseFloat(1/2) == 0.5 Expected
parseFloat('0.5') == 0.5 Expected
parseFloat(0.5) == 0.5 Expected
Is it some issue or am I doing something wrong? Also, how to get
parseFloat('1/2') == 0.5
As in doc mentioned parseFloat
parseFloat parses its argument, and returns a floating point number. If it encounters a character other than a sign (+ or -), numeral (0-9), a decimal point, or an exponent, it returns the value up to that point and ignores that character and all succeeding characters. Leading and trailing spaces are allowed.
so 1/2 treated as a string.
Not only that - this string does not contain a valid number representation in JavaScript.
Numbers in JavaScript may include -, 0-9, . and +e.
/ is not a part of it. Therefore - parseFloat parses all the characters that are legal as a number - which in your case is just the 1 part, and ignores rest.
1/2 in JavaScript is not a number, but an expression including 2 numbers and an operator (1 = num, / = operator, 2 = number). What can execute expressions?
You can use eval to calculate fractional form.
console.log(eval('2/3'))
Mind that eval is a dangerous function: using eval on user-input can lead to exploits.
parseFloat does not understand the / character as a division nor does it do an eval of the string input.
It simply stops looking when it encounters the character it doesn't understand and returns the correctly parsed first part:
console.log(
parseFloat("1/2"), // 1
parseFloat("3/2"), // 3
parseFloat("1kahsdjfjhksd2") // 1
)
If you do want to evaluate the string "1/2" to the number 0.5, you can use eval. Be careful, because using eval can be a security risk, slow and hard to debug.
console.log(
eval("1/2")
);
Not 100% sure. but if you play around with parseFloat a bit you will see that it tries to convert every number it finds to a float, but stops as soon as there is a unexpected value so :
parseFloat('1/asdf') == 1
but
parseFloat('0.5') == 0.5
So parse float does not calculate for you, but just parses every number it finds, until there is something non numerical.
Your parsing a string that will be converted to 1. If your string was only numbers (e.g. "0.5") them they would be converted correctly, but as it includes the '/', the automatic type conversion will not occur and it will remain as a string. When using numbers the expected behavior occurs, that is:
parseFloat(1/2) === 0.5 // true
I'm taking a numerical input as an argument and was just trying to account for leading zeroes. But it seems javascript converts the number into octal before I can do anything to the number. The only way to work around it so far is if I pass the number as a string initially but I was hoping there'd be another way to convert it after it is passed? So far tried (using 017 which alerted me to the octal behaviour):
017.toString(10) // 15
parseInt(017,10) // 15
017 + "" //15
new Number(017) //15
new Number('017') //17
parseInt('017', 10) // 17
So given
function(numb) {
if (typeof numb === number) {
// remove leading zeroes and convert to decimal
}
else {
// use parseInt
}
}
'use strict' also doesn't seem to solve this as some older posts have suggested. Any ideas?
If you take "numerical input", you should always definitely guaranteed have a string. There's no input method in this context that I know that returns a Number. Since you receive a string, parseInt(.., 10) will always be sufficient. 017 is only interpreted as octal if written literally as such in source code (or when missing the radix parameter to parseInt).
If for whatever bizarre reason you do end up with a decimal interpreted as octal and you want to reverse-convert the value back to a decimal, it's pretty simple: express the value in octal and re-interpret that as decimal:
var oct = 017; // 15
parseInt(oct.toString(8), 10) // 17
Though because you probably won't know whether the input was or wasn't interpreted as octal originally, this isn't something you should have to do ever.
JavaScript interprets all numbers beginning with a 0, and containing all octal numerals as octals - eg 017 would be an octal but 019 wouldn't be. If you want your number as a decimal then either
1. Omit the leading 0.
2. Carry on using parseInt().
The reason being is that JavaScript uses a few implicit conversions and it picks the most likely case based on the number. It was decided in JavaScript that a leading 0 was the signal that a number is an octal. If you need that leading 0 then you have to accept that rule and use parseInt().
Source
If you type numbers by hand to script then not use leading zeros (which implicity treat number as octal if it is valid octal - if not then treat it as decimal). If you have number as string then just use + operator to cast to (decimal) number.
console.log(+"017")
if (021 < 019) console.log('Paradox');
The strict mode will not allow to use zero prefix
'use strict'
if (021 < 019) console.log('Paradox');
I have the following two parseInt() and I am not quite sure why they gave me different results:
alert(parseInt(0.00001)) shows 0;
alert(parseInt(0.00000001)) shows 1
My guess is that since parseInt needs string parameter, it treats 0.00001 as ""+0.00001 which is "0.00001", therefore, the first alert will show 0 after parseInt. For the second statement, ""+0.00000001 will be "1e-8", whose parseInt will be 1. Am I correct?
Thanks
I believe you are correct.
parseInt(0.00001) == parseInt(String(0.00001)) == parseInt('0.00001') ==> 0
parseInt(0.00000001) == parseInt(String(0.00000001)) == parseInt('1e-8') ==> 1
You are correct.
parseInt is intended to get a number from a string. So, if you pass it a number, it first converts it into a string, and then back into a number. After string conversion, parseInt starts at the first number in the string and gives up at the first non-number related character. So "1.e-8" becomes "1"
If you know you are starting with a string, and are just trying to get an Integer value, you can do something like.
Math.round(Number('0.00000001')); // 0
If you know you have a floating point number and not a string...
Math.round(0.00000001); // 0
You can also truncate, ceil(), or floor the number
parseInt takes each character in the first argument (converted to a string) that it recognizes as a number, and as soon as it finds a non-numeric value it ignores that value and the rest of the string. (see MDN second paragraph under "Description")
Therefore it's likely that parseInt(0.00000001) === parseInt(String(0.00000001)) === parseInt("1e-8"), which would only extract the 1 from the string yielding parseInt("1") === 1
However, there's another possibility:
From Mozilla developer network:
parseInt(string, radix);
for the string argument (emphasis added): "The value to parse. If string is not a string, then it is converted to one. Leading whitespace in the string is ignored."
I think this possibility is less likely, since String(0.00000001) does not yield NAN.
I have a button where in the code behind I add a onclick and I pass a unique ID which will be passed to the js function. The id starts with a 0.
It wasn't working and eventually I figured out that the number, id, it was passing was wrong...
Ie. see this: js fiddle
It works with a ' at the start and end of the number. Just wondering why 013 turns to 11. I did some googling and couldn't find anything...
Cheers
Robin
Edit:
Thanks guys. Yep understand now.
As in this case the 0 at the start has a meaning, here the recipient ID in a mailing list, I will use '013' instead of just 013, i.e. a string. I can then split the values in js as each of the 3 values represents a different id which will always be only 1 character long, i.e. 0-9.
A numeric literal that starts with a 0 is treated as an octal number. So 13 from base 8 is 11 in base 10...
Octal numeric literals have been deprecated, but still work if you are not in strict mode.
(You didn't ask, but) A numeric literal that starts with 0x is treated as hexadecimal.
More info at MDN.
In your demo the parameter is called id, which implies you don't need to do numerical operations on it - if so, just put it in quotes and use it as a string.
If you need to be able to pass a leading zero but still have the number treated as base 10 to do numerical operations on it you can enclose it in quotes to pass it as a string and then convert the string to a number in a way that forces base 10, e.g.:
something('013');
function something(id){
alert(+id); // use unary plus operator to convert
// OR
alert(parseInt(id,10)); // use parseInt() to convert
}
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/XYa6U/5/
013 is octal, not decimal, it's equal 11 in decimal
You should note that 013 starts with a 0. In Javascript, this causes the number to be considered octal. In general you'll want to use the decimal, and hexadecimal number systems. Occasionally though, octal numbers are useful, as this question shows.
I hope this helps! :)
If the first digit of a number is a zero, parseInt interprets the number as an octal.
You can specify a base of ten like this:
parseInt(numberString, 10)
You could also remove such zeros with a regex like this (the result will be a string):
numberString.replace(/^0+/g, '');