How do I define a float in Javascript? [duplicate]

Question

So I want to give JS a number in exponential notation. Amazingly, I haven't found a reference on how to do this.

Why doesn't this work?

 var tempdec = 8.85956e-8;

I don't have to do

 var tempdec = parseFloat('8.95956e-8');

...do I?

... answered below.

The upshot: It does work.

However, using var in the console returns undefined. But it works nonetheless.

Returns 'undefined' in at least the Chrome Dev Tools console. — Joshua Penman
– Joshua Penman, Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 1:07
this one even better stackoverflow.com/questions/22844840/… — Paul
– Paul, Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 1:36

Bhojendra Rauniyar · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-26 01:08:17Z

1

Numbers in javascript are floating point integers, so you don't have to use parseFloat('8.95956e-8') as 8.85956e-8 is same.

Try this in the console:

var tempdec = 8.85956e-8;
console.log(tempdec);//It logs 8.85956e-8 not undefined
console.log(parseFloat(tempdec));//Logs the same as above...

answered Jan 26, 2015 at 1:08

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4 Comments

Okay... do you have any insight as to my initial question? Specifically, why var tempdec = 8.85956e-8; returns undefined?

@JoshuaPenman Because your line of code doesn't return anything for the console to output. If you enter tempdec it will show the value.

I thought I knew a little about floating point, but I don't know what "floating point integers" are. Could someone give me a hint?

nothing. I wanted to mean numbers...