How do parseInt() and Number() behave differently when converting strings to numbers?
11 Answers
Well, they are semantically different, the Number constructor called as a function performs type conversion and parseInt performs parsing, e.g.:
// parsing:
parseInt("20px"); // 20
parseInt("10100", 2); // 20
parseInt("2e1"); // 2
// type conversion
Number("20px"); // NaN
Number("2e1"); // 20, exponential notation
Also parseInt will ignore trailing characters that don't correspond with any digit of the currently used base.
The Number constructor doesn't detect implicit octals, but can detect the explicit octal notation:
Number("010"); // 10
Number("0o10") // 8, explicit octal
parseInt("010"); // 8, implicit octal
parseInt("010", 10); // 10, decimal radix used
And it can handle numbers in hexadecimal notation, just like parseInt:
Number("0xF"); // 15
parseInt("0xF"); //15
In addition, a widely used construct to perform Numeric type conversion, is the Unary + Operator (p. 72), it is equivalent to using the Number constructor as a function:
+"2e1"; // 20
+"0xF"; // 15
+"010"; // 10
13 Comments
Number() does deal with octals much like hex and binary: Number('0o10') == 8parseInt("010") returns 10 in ChromeOne minor difference is what they convert of undefined or null,
Number() Or Number(null) Or Number('') // returns 0
while
parseInt() Or parseInt(null) Or parseInt('') // returns NaN
1 Comment
0. parseInt, however expects strings, so null and undefined are coerced to the strings "null" or "undefined", respectively, first, which don’t start with digits. Number(undefined) is NaN, not 0, which is a special step of the Number(…) algorithm. At any rate, the question asked about “when converting strings to numbers”, not about these special cases.typeof parseInt("123") => number
typeof Number("123") => number
typeof new Number("123") => object (Number primitive wrapper object)
first two will give you better performance as it returns a primitive instead of an object.
7 Comments
new Number() is different to Number(). typeof Number("123") => numbernew Number("1") != new Number("1"). NEVER USE new Number. Never never never never. Number("1"), on the other hand, is perfectly reasonable.let x = new Number("2"); let y = new Number("2"); and then later on do an equality check for whatever reason, if (x == y) { doSomething(); } logically doSomething should be called. But it wont. Also if you were to parse only one number let x = new Number("2"); then x === 2 would be false. That is a clear reason why you should not use new NumberSummary:
parseInt():
- Takes a string as a first argument, the radix (An integer which is the base of a numeral system e.g. decimal 10 or binary 2) as a second argument
- The function returns a integer number, if the first character cannot be converted to a number
NaNwill be returned. - If the
parseInt()function encounters a non numerical value, it will cut off the rest of input string and only parse the part until the non numerical value. - If the radix is
undefinedor 0, JS will assume the following:- If the input string begins with "0x" or "0X", the radix is 16 (hexadecimal), the remainder of the string is parsed into a number.
- If the input value begins with a 0 the radix can be either 8 (octal) or 10 (decimal). Which radix is chosen is depending on JS engine implementation.
ES5specifies that 10 should be used then. However, this is not supported by all browsers, therefore always specify radix if your numbers can begin with a 0. - If the input value begins with any number, the radix will be 10
Number():
- The
Number()constructor can convert any argument input into a number. If theNumber()constructor cannot convert the input into a number,NaNwill be returned. - The
Number()constructor can also handle hexadecimal number, they have to start with0x.
Example:
console.log(parseInt('0xF', 16)); // 15
// z is no number, it will only evaluate 0xF, therefore 15 is logged
console.log(parseInt('0xFz123', 16));
// because the radix is 10, A is considered a letter not a number (like in Hexadecimal)
// Therefore, A will be cut off the string and 10 is logged
console.log(parseInt('10A', 10)); // 10
// first character isnot a number, therefore parseInt will return NaN
console.log(parseInt('a1213', 10));
console.log('\n');
// start with 0X, therefore Number will interpret it as a hexadecimal value
console.log(Number('0x11'));
// Cannot be converted to a number, NaN will be returned, notice that
// the number constructor will not cut off a non number part like parseInt does
console.log(Number('123A'));
// scientific notation is allowed
console.log(Number('152e-1')); // 15.21
Comments
If you are looking for performance then probably best results you'll get with bitwise right shift "10">>0. Also multiply ("10" * 1) or not not (~~"10"). All of them are much faster of Number and parseInt.
They even have "feature" returning 0 for not number argument.
Here are Performance tests.
8 Comments
parseInt or Number are more preferable. If you are programming a N64 emulator with millions of conversions per seconds, you might consider those tricks.(2**31).toString() >> 0 will overflow to -2147483648. You can use >>> instead of >> to have JavaScript treat the operand as an unsigned 32-bit integer, but then any numbers larger than 2**32 - 1 will also overflow.Number was ahead of bitwise and *1, ~~"10" had a way lower score for me.I found two links of performance compare among several ways of converting string to int.
parseInt(str,10)
parseFloat(str)
str << 0
+str
str*1
str-0
Number(str)
Comments
parseInt() -> Parses a number to specified redix.
Number()-> Converts the specified value to its numeric equivalent or NaN if it fails to do so.
Hence for converting some non-numeric value to number we should always use Number() function.
eg.
Number("")//0
parseInt("")//NaN
Number("123")//123
parseInt("123")//123
Number("123ac") //NaN,as it is a non numeric string
parsInt("123ac") //123,it parse decimal number outof string
Number(true)//1
parseInt(true) //NaN
There are various corner case to parseInt() functions as it does redix conversion, hence we should avoid using parseInt() function for coersion purposes.
Now, to check weather the provided value is Numeric or not,we should use nativeisNaN() function
I always use parseInt, but beware of leading zeroes that will force it into octal mode.
3 Comments
parseInt(value, radix) that way you don't have accidental octal mode conversions, etc.0, even in non-strict mode. But this has been fixed and now leading zeroes are just ignored, so parseInt("070") would become 70.parseInt().It's a good idea to stay away from parseInt and use Number and Math.round unless you need hex or octal. Both can use strings. Why stay away from it?
parseInt(0.001, 10)
0
parseInt(-0.0000000001, 10)
-1
parseInt(0.0000000001, 10)
1
parseInt(4000000000000000000000, 10)
4
It completely butchers really large or really small numbers. Oddly enough it works normally if these inputs are a string.
parseInt("-0.0000000001", 10)
0
parseInt("0.0000000001", 10)
0
parseInt("4000000000000000000000", 10)
4e+21
Instead of risking hard to find bugs with this and the other gotchas people mentioned, I would just avoid parseInt unless you need to parse something other than base 10. Number, Math.round, Math.floor, and .toFixed(0) can all do the same things parseInt can be used for without having these types of bugs.
If you really want or need to use parseInt for some of it's other qualities, never use it to convert floats to ints.
4 Comments
parseInt expects strings. Any non-string is first coerced to a string. Since 4000000000000000000000 is not a safe integer, its string representation is 4e+21, and parseInt’s left-to-right parsing stops before the non-digit e. Using parseInt with numeric arguments or to round a number is a misuse.parseInt should be checked by anyone who thinks this answer deserves an upvote. The parseInt function does not accept a number. It's for parsing strings. If you use JavaScript, it will coerce the number into a string before the function receives the argument (which is what causes the rounding) and if you use TypeScript it won't even compile because it's wrong. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/…Number and Math.round can both use strings as well.parseInt converts to a integer number, that is, it strips decimals. Number does not convert to integer.
2 Comments
Number("10.0") does return 10, but Number("10.1") returns 10.1. So, that's a fun special case to watch out for.Number() gotcha though. There is no concept of 10.0 in JS.Another way to get the result is to use the ~ operator
For most circumstances
~~someThing === parseInt(something)
but ~~ will return zero for strings that parseInt will accept with trailing other characters or with the number base spec (eg hex) and will also return zero when parseInt returns NaN. Another difference is that ~~ if given a bigint returns a bigint to which you can add another bigint whereas parseInt returns an ordinary floating point number (yes really - it gives exactly the same value as parseFloat) if the bigint is large
However for most circumstances ~~ is 30% faster than parseInt. It is only slower by 10% when something is a floating point represented as a string.
So if the more restricted scope of ~~ fits your need then save the computer time and give yourself less to type



parseFloatvsNumbersince all numbers are 64-bit floats. Related: stackoverflow.com/q/12227594/4294399