I noticed that the correct
return str.slice(0, res);
returns the same value as the incorrect
var str = "some_string";
return str.slice(str, res);
In this case str is a string and res is a numeric quantity.
My guess is that some how because slice expects a numeric quantity and does not get one ( for the first parameter ), it converts what it finds to a 0.
Is this expected behavior?
JavaScript provides implicit type coercion. That means if an integer is expected (as is the case here), it will convert the value provided to an integer. If no sensible value can be divined, zero is used.
If an integer is provided, great!
If a string is provided and it looks like a integer (e.g. str.slice("5", res)) it will be converted into the expected integer.
If a string is provided and it doesn't look like a number (e.g. str.slice("abc", res)), 0 is used.
My guess is that some how because slice expects a numeric quantity and does not get one ( for the first parameter ), it converts what it finds to a 0.
That's basically what happens. .slice calls ToInteger on the first argument, which in turn calls ToNumber. But if the value cannot be converted to a number (if the result is NaN), it returns 0.
So, if you pass a numeric string as start, .slice would start at the mathematical value of that string. Any other string converts to 0.
Related
Why does parseInt("-1000-500-75-33") return -1000?
Shouldn't it return the sum of those numbers: -1608
How can I get the string "-1000-500-75-33" to return as the sum of those numbers?
parseInt will try to get a number starting from the beginning of the string.
Since - is a valid character to begin a number with, it parses the string until it finds something invalid. The second - is invalid because no integer can contain an - inside it, only digits. So it stops there and considers the number to be "finished".
Now, if you want to process the expression, you can use eval like so:
eval("-1000-500-75-33")
This will return -1608 as expected.
parseInt will not perform any computations, rather it will try to convert a string into an integer. It returns -1000 because the dash afterwards would not be considered a valid number. If you want to sum all these numbers you could split on the dash, map to Number, then reduce:
var numString = "-1000-500-75-33";
numString.split('-').map(e => Number(e)).reduce((a, b) => a - b);
Try to eval! it's safe here
eval("-1000-500-75-33").toString()
console.log(eval("-1000-500-75-33").toString());
And about type casting: After parsing -1000, which is obviously "negative 1000", It will escape casting as soon as it detect a symbol common between numbers & strings. So parseInt is seeing "-1000-500-75-33" as "-1000NotConvertableString", So left the remaining away, returning -1000 as the result of type-casting.
Since they are in a string, ParseInt does not parse the whole string, just finds the first applicable number from the start & returns it. If the start of the string cannot be parsed, it returns NaN
parseInt("-1000NOT_NUMBER") = -1000
parseInt("test-1000`) = NaN
You have to use eval function to do what you want, that evaluates given string as if it were a command entered into the console;
eval("-1000-500-75-33") = -1608
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.
Which rule do I have to follow when extracting numbers out of DOM and calcluation with them? How does javascript knows that a value is a number or not? Should I always use parseInt?
Given following Code:
HTML
<div id="myvalue">5</div>
<div id="withParseInt"></div>
<div id="withoutParseInt"></div>
<div id="withoutParseIntButIncrement"></div>
JS & jQuery:
var value = $('#myvalue').text();
$('#withParseInt').text(parseInt(value) + 1);
$('#withoutParseInt').text(value + 1);
$('#withoutParseIntButIncrement').text(value++);
Gives following output:
5
6
51
5
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ytxKU/3/
The .text() method will always return a string. Some operators, like the + operator, are overloaded to perform both arithmetic and string operations. In the case of strings, it performs concatenation, hence the "51" result.
If you have a string and need to use a non-coercing operator, you will have to use parseInt (or some other method of converting to a number).
However, the * operator for example implicity performs this coercion, so you wouldn't need the parseInt call in that situation (see an updated fiddle for example).
Note that the increment ++ operator does coerce its operand, but you've used the postfix operator so it won't have any effect. Use the prefix operator and you can see it working:
$('#withoutParseIntButIncrement').text(++value);
So, to summarise:
// Parses string to number and adds 1
$('#withParseInt').text(parseInt(value) + 1);
// Coerces number 1 to string "1" and concatenates
$('#withoutParseInt').text(value + 1);
// Implicity coerces string to number, but after it's been inserted into the DOM
$('#withoutParseIntButIncrement').text(value++);
// Implicity coerces string to number, before it's been inserted into the DOM
$('#withoutParseIntButIncrement').text(++value);
// Implicity coerces to number
$('#withoutParseIntButMultiply').text(value * 2);
Side note: it's considered good practice to always pass the second argument (the radix) to parseInt. This ensures the number is parsed in the correct base:
parseInt(value, 10); // For base 10
One and only rule:
Every value that you retrieve from the DOM is a string.
Yes, you should always use parseInt() or Number() to be on the safe side. Otherwise Javascript will decide what to do with it
The value itself is a string
Using operator + will concatenate two strings
Using operator - will calculate the numerical difference
...
It's always good to use parseInt just to be on the safe side, especially as you can supply a second parameter for the numerical system to use.
By the way, in your final example it should be ++value if you want it to equal 6.
What is the difference between parseInt(string) and Number(string) in JavaScript has been asked previously.
But the answers basically focused on the radix and the ability of parseInt to take a string like "123htg" and turn it into 123.
What I am asking here is if there is any big difference between the returns of Number(...) and parseFloat(...) when you pass it an actual number string with no radix at all.
The internal workings are not that different, as #James Allardic already answered. There is a difference though. Using parseFloat, a (trimmed) string starting with one or more numeric characters followed by alphanumeric characters can convert to a Number, with Number that will not succeed. As in:
parseFloat('3.23abc'); //=> 3.23
Number('3.23abc'); //=> NaN
In both conversions, the input string is trimmed, by the way:
parseFloat(' 3.23abc '); //=> 3.23
Number(' 3.23 '); //=> 3.23
No. Both will result in the internal ToNumber(string) function being called.
From ES5 section 15.7.1 (The Number Constructor Called as a Function):
When Number is called as a function rather than as a constructor, it performs a type conversion...
Returns a Number value (not a Number object) computed by ToNumber(value) if value was supplied, else returns +0.
From ES5 section 15.1.2.3 (parseFloat (string)):
...
If neither trimmedString nor any prefix of trimmedString satisfies the syntax of a StrDecimalLiteral (see 9.3.1)
...
And 9.3.1 is the section titled "ToNumber Applied to the String Type", which is what the first quote is referring to when it says ToNumber(value).
Update (see comments)
By calling the Number constructor with the new operator, you will get an instance of the Number object, rather than a numeric literal. For example:
typeof new Number(10); //object
typeof Number(10); //number
This is defined in section 15.7.2 (The Number Constructor):
When Number is called as part of a new expression it is a constructor: it initialises the newly created object.
Not a whole lot of difference, as long as you're sure there's nothing but digits in your string. If there are, Number will return NaN. Another problem that you might get using the Number constructor is that co-workers might think you forgot the new keyword, and add it later on, causing strict comparisons to fail new Number(123) === 123 --> false whereas Number(123) === 123 --> true.
In general, I prefer to leave the Number constructor for what it is, and just use the shortest syntax there is to cast to an int/float: +numString, or use parse*.
When not using new to create a wrapper object for a numerical value, Number is relegated to simply doing type conversion from string to number.
'parseFloat' on the other hand, as you mentioned, can parse a floating point number from any string that starts with a digit, a decimal, or +/-
So, if you're only working with strings that contain only numerical values, Number(x) and parseFloat(x) will result in the same values
Please excuse me posting yet another answer, but I just got here via a Google search and did not find all of the details that I wanted. Running the following code in Node.js:
var vals = ["1", "1.1", "0", "1.1abc", "", " ", null];
for(var i = 0; i < vals.length; i++){
var ifTest = false;
if(vals[i])
{
ifTest = true;
}
console.log("val=" + vals[i] + ", Number()=" + Number(vals[i])+ ", parseFloat()=" + parseFloat(vals[i]) + ", if()=" + ifTest);
}
gives the following output:
val=1, Number()=1, parseFloat()=1, if()=true
val=1.1, Number()=1.1, parseFloat()=1.1, if()=true
val=0, Number()=0, parseFloat()=0, if()=true
val=1.1abc, Number()=NaN, parseFloat()=1.1, if()=true
val=, Number()=0, parseFloat()=NaN, if()=false
val= , Number()=0, parseFloat()=NaN, if()=true
val=null, Number()=0, parseFloat()=NaN, if()=false
Some noteworthy takeaways:
If protecting with an if(val) before trying to convert to number, then parseFloat() will return a number except in the whitespace case.
Number returns a number in all cases except for non-numeric characters aside from white-space.
Please feel free to add any test cases that I may be missing.
I have this function (going trough the Eloquent Javascript Tutorial chapter 3):
function absolute(number) {
if (number < 0)
return -number;
else
return number;
}
show(absolute(prompt("Pick a number", "")));
If I run it and enter -3 the output will be 3 as expectet but if I enter just 3 the output will be "3" (with double quotes). I can get around by changing
return number;
to
return Number(number);
but why is that necessary? What am I missing?
prompt() always returns a string, but when you enter a negative number, it is handed to the -number call and implicitly converted to a Number. That doesn't happen if you pass it a positive, and the value received by prompt() is returned directly.
You can, as you discovered, cast it with Number(), or you can use parseInt(number, 10), or you could do -(-number) to flip it negative, then positive again, or more obviously as pointed out in comments, +number. (Don't do --number, which will cast it to a Number then decrement it)
Javascript is not strongly typed.
number comes from the prompt() function, which returns a string.
Since you aren't doing anything to change its type, it remains a string.
-number implicitly converts and returns an actual number.
If you have a string that needs to be converted to a number, please do the following:
var numString = '3';
var num = parseInt(numString);
console.log(num); // 3
JavaScript performs automatic conversion between types. Your incoming "number" is most likely string (you can verify by showing result of typeof(number)).
- does not take "string" as argument, so it will be converted to number first and than negated. You can get the same behavior using unary +: typeof(+ "3") is number when typeof("3") is string.
Same happens for binary - - will convert operands to number. + is more fun as it work with both strings "1"+"2" is "12", but 1+2 is 3.