• A variable in JavaScript can contain any data.
• A variable can at one moment be a string and at another be a number.
• Programming languages that allow such things are called “dynamically typed”.
  • It means that there are data types, but variables are not bound to any of them.

number

• It represents both integer and floating point numbers.

• The special numeric values also belong to this data type: Infinity, -Infinity and NaN.

  • Infinity (and -Infinity) is a special numeric value that is greater (less) than anything.
  • NaN represents a computational error.
    • Any further operation on NaN returns NaN.
    • The value NaN is unique in that it does not equal anything, including itself.

  console.log(NaN === NaN); // false
  console.log(isNaN(NaN)); // true
  console.log(isNaN("str")); // true
  

• isFinite(value) converts its argument to a number and returns true if it’s a regular number, not NaN, Infinity, or -Infinity.

  • Sometimes isFinite is used to validate whether a string value is a regular number:
  • An empty or a space-only string is treated as 0 in all numeric functions including isFinite.

  console.log(isFinite("15")); // true
  console.log(isFinite("str")); // false, because a special value: NaN
  console.log(isFinite(Infinity)); // false, because a special value: Infinit
  

• Math computation is “safe” in JavaScript.

  • We can do anything: divide by zero, treat non-numeric strings as numbers, etc.
  • The script will never stop with a fatal error.
  • At worst, we’ll get NaN as the result.

let billion = 1e9;  // 1 billion, literally: 1 and 9 zeroes
console.log( 7.3e9 );  // 7.3 billions (7,300,000,000)
console.log( 1e-6 ); // Six zeroes to the left from 1, which is 0.000001

console.log( 0xff ); // 255
console.log( 0xFF ); // 255 (the same, case doesn't matter)

let a = 0b11111111; // binary form of 255
let b = 0o377; // octal form of 255

let num = 255;
// The base can vary from 2 to 36. By default it’s 10.
console.log(num.toString(16));  // ff
console.log(num.toString(2));   // 11111111
// If we want to call a method directly on a number, then we need to place two dots .. after it.
console.log(123456..toString(36)); // 2n9c

parseInt and parseFloat

• Numeric conversion using a plus + or Number() is strict.
  • If a value is not exactly a number, it fails.
  • The sole exception is spaces at the beginning or at the end of the string, as they are ignored.
• parseInt and parseFloat “read” a number from a string until they can’t.
  • In case of an error, the gathered number is returned.
  • The function parseInt returns an integer, whilst parseFloat will return a floating-point number.
• There are situations when parseInt/parseFloat will return NaN.
  • It happens when no digits could be read.
• The parseInt() function has an optional second parameter.
  • It specifies the base of the numeral system, so parseInt can also parse strings of hex numbers, binary numbers and so on.

parseInt('100px'); // 100
parseFloat('12.5em'); // 12.5

parseInt('12.3'); // 12, only the integer part is returned
parseFloat('12.3.4'); // 12.3, the second point stops the reading

parseInt('a123'); // NaN, the first symbol stops the process

parseInt('0xff', 16); // 255
parseInt('ff', 16); // 255, without 0x also works

parseInt('2n9c', 36); // 123456

Math Functions

• Math.floor: Rounds down: 3.1 becomes 3, and -1.1 becomes -2.
• Math.ceil: Rounds up: 3.1 becomes 4, and -1.1 becomes -1.
• Math.round: Rounds to the nearest integer: 3.1 becomes 3, 3.6 becomes 4 and -1.1 becomes -1.
• Math.trunc (not supported by IE): Removes anything after the decimal point without rounding: 3.1 becomes 3, -1.1 becomes -1.