I have a function to test if a prompt input is a number, like so:
function myFunction()
{
var person = prompt("Please enter your name", "");
if (person != null)
{
if(isNaN(person))
{
document.write("hello " + person + "<br><br>");
}
else
document.write("You gave me a number");
}
else
{
document.write("You didn't answer.<br><br>");
}
}
but every time I enter a number it keeps outputting hello + the number. I've been googling this function for quite some time and it doesn't make sense to me, it seems like it should work. Why is person returning true?
NaN is a special value in Javascript. What isNaN does is check to see if the value passed is equal* to this special value. If you want to check if something is, say, not a stream of numbers, you can use a regular expression:
if (!/^\d+(\.\d+)?/.exec(person)) {
Or parse the value as a number and see if it converts back to the same string:
var n = parseFloat(person);
if (n.toString() !== person) {
*There's a reason that we don't use === but it's outside the scope of this answer.
The isNaN function checks if a value is NaN. NaN is a value that occurs when making operations that require numbers with non-numbers. Please see the documentation.
However the function does not check if the value is of type number. Too check if a value is of type number use the typeof operator
typeof person === 'number'
Your code is the correct way of using the isNaN method. However for anyone else reading this post I have seen a strange anomaly where the documented usage of IsNaN hasn't worked properly and I got around the problem by combining the parseInt method with the IsNaN method. According to the W3c web site (https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_isnan.asp) the IsNan('123') should return false and IsNan('g12') should return true, but I've seen scenarios where this isn't the case.
If you're having trouble getting the documented methods to work try this code below:
var unitsToAdd = parseInt($('#unitsToAdd').val());
if(isNaN(unitsToAdd)) {
alert('not a number');
$('#unitsToAdd').val('1');
returnVal = false;
}
Alternatively you can try this method which is well tested.
function isNumber(searchValue) {
var found = searchValue.search(/^(\d*\.?\d*)$/);
//Change to ^(\d*\.?\d+)$ if you don't want the number to end with a . such as 2.
//Currently validates .2, 0.2, 2.0 and 2.
if(found > -1) {
return true;
}
else {
return false;
}
}
Hope this helps.
Related
A group of me and two other people are working to make a Jeopardy game (themed around United States History questions) all in JavaScript. For our final Jeopardy screen, the two teams will each bet a certain amount of money. To prevent a team from typing in random letters for a bet (i.e typing in "hasdfhgasf" instead of an actual amount), we're trying to write an 'onEvent' command that checks to see if a bet is null. If that bet is null, then the code should come up with a message on the screen that tells them to check their bets again.
We tried using statements like, if "null" or if " " but neither of these statements works. We've worked with using getNumber and getText commands, along with just regular variable comparisons with or booleans. So far, we haven't had any luck with these methods.
Here's the group of code we're having issues with:
onEvent("finalJeopardyBetSubmit", "click", function() {
team1Bet = getNumber("team1BetInput");
team2Bet = getNumber("team2BetInput");
console.log(team1Bet);
console.log(team2Bet);
if (getText("team1BetInput") == "" || getText("team2BetInput") == "") {
console.log("Check bet!");
finalJeopardyError();
} else if ((getText("team1BetInput") != 0 || getText("team2BetInput") != 0)) {
console.log("Check bet!");
finalJeopardyError();
} else if ((getNumber("team1BetInput") < 0 || getNumber("team2BetInput") < 0)) {
console.log("Check bet!");
finalJeopardyError();
} else if ((getNumber("team1BetInput") > team1Money || getNumber("team2BetInput") > team2Money)) {
console.log("Check bet!");
finalJeopardyError();
} else {
console.log("Done");
}
});
You can also check out the whole program on Code.org if you'd like to get a better look.
We expect that with the console.log commands, it should say "check bet" if the bets return as null. Instead, the code has ended up fine, and not displaying our error message, even if we type in nothing or just random letters.
a null variable will evaluate to false. Try:
if(variable){
// variable not null
}else{
// variable null
}
Convert the value to a Number first using Number(value) and then check for falsy values using the logical not ! operator. If they enter alphabetic characters, then calling Number('abc') results in NaN.
If a value can be converted to true, the value is so-called truthy. If
a value can be converted to false, the value is so-called falsy.
Examples of expressions that can be converted to false are:
null; NaN; 0; empty string ("" or '' or ``); undefined.
The ! will change any of the falsy values above to true, so you can check for all of them with just the first if statement below.
onEvent("finalJeopardyBetSubmit", "click", function() {
// Convert these values to numbers first
var team1Bet = Number(getNumber("team1BetInput"));
var team2Bet = Number(getNumber("team2BetInput"));
if (!team1Bet || !team2Bet) {
// Handle invalid number error
}
else if (team1Bet < 0 || team2Bet < 0) {
// Handle invalid range error
}
else if (team1Bet > team1Money || team2Bet > team2Money) {
// Handle insufficient funds error
}
else {
// Finish game
}
})
You can read more about the logical operators here.
For some reason, no matter what I bind to the variable theNumber, I still get the console outputting the first console.log() inside of the numberCheck(). I expected this to output the second console.log(), but it refuses. I have tried many different syntactical changes. Maybe I just don't understand the expression !Number.isNaN(). I thought that this meant if the number is a number than its true, but I might be wrong.
Keep in mind, I'm new. I understand terminology so feel free to communicate with whatever words. But my javascript logic is subpar.
let theNumber = 'god'
function numberCheck(x) {
if (!Number.isNaN(x)) {
console.log('You picked a number')
}
else {
console.log('why won't this log');
}
}
numberCheck(theNumber)
numberCheck(12)
The output:
You picked a number
You picked a number
FIXED and Working as Expected:
let theNumber = 'god'
function numberCheck(x) {
if (isNaN(x)) {
console.log('You picked a number')
}
else {
console.log('why wont this log');
}
}
numberCheck(theNumber)
numberCheck(12)
The output:
why wont this log
You picked a number
In JS NaN is a value that differs from a type to another, basically NaN for strings, NaN for ints etc, what that method is doing is checking if the passed value is a NaN of type Number.
You have to cast the argument x to a number
let theNumber = 'god'
function numberCheck(x) {
if (!Number.isNaN(Number(x))) {
console.log('You picked a number');
} else {
console.log('why won\'t this log');
}
}
numberCheck(theNumber);
numberCheck(12);
Using "isNaN" function can be tricky sometimes (see this part of the documentation "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/isNaN").
Since it seems you want just verify if a variable is a number or not, you can make it that way:
var theNumber = 100;
function numberCheck(x){
if(typeof x === 'number'){
console.log('Nice you picked a number');
}else{
console.log('It is not a number');
}
}
numberCheck(theNumber);
"typeof" function will return the type of the variable "x".
Thanks to some of the answers on this site, I built a function to validate an integer inside a prompt in javascript. I found out how to use isNaN and the result of % in order to meet my needs, but there must be something wrong, because is still not working: This function for validation needs to accept only integers, and as extra bonus, it will also accept a special keyword used for a different purpose later on in the program.
So, previously I had defined:
var value = prompt("Type an integer");
So after that, I made a call for the validation function, and that included three conditions: The validation warning would jump if:
1) The string is not a number
2) The string % 1 is not 0 (means is not an integer)
3) The string is not the special keyword ("extra") which is also valid as input.
The function needs to loop and keep showing the prompt until a valid data is written.
while (isNaN(value) == true && value % 1 != 0 && value != "extra") {
alert("Please, type an integer");
var value = prompt("Type an integer");
}
What am I doing wrong? Thank you so much for any ideas. I know the integer validation has been asked many times here, and here I got a few ideas, but I might be missing something...
You might be complicating things too much... A quick regular expression will do the trick.
while (!/^(\d+|extra)$/i.test(value)) {
...
}
You typed only one equal at
isNaN(value) = true
jsFiddle example
var int = 10;
var str = "10";
var isInt = function(value) {
return (str === 'extra' || !isNaN(parseInt(value, 16)) || /^\d+$/.test(value));
};
var isIntStrict = function(value) {
return (isInt(value) && typeof value !== 'string');
}
console.log('false', isInt('kirk'));
console.log('true', isInt(int));
console.log('true', isInt(str));
console.log('true', 'strict - int', isIntStrict(int));
console.log('false','strict - string', isIntStrict(str));
console.log('false','strict - string', isIntStrict('0x04'));
console.log('true','strict - string', isIntStrict(0x04));
I assume that for your purposes #elclanrs' answer is all you need here, and is the simplest and most straightforward, but just for completeness and dubious laughs, I'm pretty sure that the following would also do what you're looking for:
function isAnIntOrExtra(v) {
if (parseInt(+v) === +v && v !== '') {
return parseInt(+v);
}
else if (v === 'extra') {
return v;
}
else {
return false;
}
}
Fiddle here
These should all pass and return an integer in decimal notation:
'387' returns 387
'-4' returns -4
'0' returns 0
'2.4e3' returns 2400
'0xf4' returns 244
while these should all fail:
'4.5' returns false
'2.4e-3' returns false
'0xgc' returns false
'' returns false
'seven' returns false
And the magic-word 'extra' returns 'extra'
Of course, it'll "fail" miserably with values like '1,345', and will probably roll right over octal notation, treating it as though it were decimal notation (depending on the JavaScript engine?), but it could be tweaked to handle those situations as well, but really, you're better off with the regex.
I'm validating my form, just checking if in the fields where a number should be the user has entered an string. But as I'm getting all the field values like this:
var number= $("#number").val();
All my variables are strings.
alert(typeof number);
shows "string" with all numeric fields values.
Any ideas on how can I validate integers??
Thanks a lot
You can use
jQuery.isNumeric( value )
method for this purpose. As a result you don't need any extra parsing effort.
DEMO
Read more about $.isNumeric()
For manual parse(if you don't use above)
var number = parseInt($("#number").val(), 10);
and for check
if(isNaN(number)) {
// do something
} else {
// do something else
}
isNaN(parseInt($("#number").val())); should do the trick! If you want to work with the number at all, this might be an easier way:
var value = parseInt($("#number").val());
if (isNaN(value)) {
console.log("invalid input");
} else {
console.log("user entered: " + value);
}
I've got a form where the user inputs 3 values, which are then calculated. The outputs are displayed again within the form in some "readonly" output boxes. For each input, I want to validate if they are a number, if not, instead of the form showing "NaN" I want to display an error saying, "Please enter a number" (or something like that). Below is the code I am using, which is executed "onkeyup":
function checkforNumber()
{
if (isNaN(sInput || dInput || pInput) == true) {
alert("You entered an invalid character. Please reset the form.");
}
else {
return(false);
}
}
Am I using this function incorrectly? Is there something wrong with the syntax?
Thanks
if (isNaN(sInput) || isNaN(dInput) || isNaN(pInput)) {
alert("You entered an invalid character. Please reset the form.");
}
also make sure that those 3 variables sInput, dInput and pInput are not strings but were obtained by using parseFloat or parseInt methods.
var sInput = parseFloat(document.getElementById('sinput').value);
var dInput = parseFloat(document.getElementById('dinput').value);
var pInput = parseFloat(document.getElementById('pinput').value);
if (isNaN(sInput) || isNaN(dInput) || isNaN(pInput))
This is what I think you intended. You need to pass each value you want to test in to the isNaN function one at a time. Also note that you don't need the == true part, because isNaN returns true or false so the condition will evaluate to the return value.