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JavaScript Reference: Number

All about the JavaScript Number properties and methods

This article documents how to work with the Number built-in object, and lists its properties and methods.

A number value can be generated using a number literal syntax:

const age = 36
typeof age //number

or using the Number global function:

const age = Number(36)
typeof age //number

If we add the new keyword, we get a Number object in return:

const age = new Number(36)
typeof age //object

which has a very different behavior than a number type. You can get the original number value using the valueOf() method:

const age = new Number(36)
typeof age //object
age.valueOf() //36

Properties

Those properties evaluated to the values listed below:

Number.EPSILON
Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER
Number.MAX_VALUE
Number.MIN_SAFE_INTEGER
Number.MIN_VALUE
Number.NaN
Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY
Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY
2.220446049250313e-16
9007199254740991
1.7976931348623157e+308
-9007199254740991
5e-324
NaN
-Infinity
Infinity

Object Methods

We can call those methods passing a value:

I mentioned “safe integer”. Also up above, with the MAX_SAFE_INTEGER and MIN_SAFE_INTEGER properties. What is a safe integer? It’s an integer that can be exactly represented as an IEEE-754 double precision number (all integers from (2^53 - 1) to -(2^53 - 1)). Out of this range, integers cannot be represented by JavaScript correctly. Out of the scope of the course, but here is a great explanation of that.

Instance methods

When you use the new keyword to instantiate a value with the Number() function, we get a Number object in return:

const age = new Number(36)
typeof age //object

This object offers a few unique methods you can use. Mostly to convert the number to specific formats.


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