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Chapter 3. Data Types and Values

Computer programs work by manipulating values , such as the number 3.14 or the text "Hello World". The types of values that can be represented and manipulated in a programming language are known as data types, and one of the most fundamental characteristics of a programming language is the set of data types it supports. JavaScript allows you to work with three primitive data types: numbers, strings of text (known as "strings"), and boolean truth values (known as "booleans"). JavaScript also defines two trivial data types, null and undefined, each of which defines only a single value.

In addition to these primitive data types, JavaScript supports a composite data type known as object. An object (that is, a member of the data type object) represents a collection of values (either primitive values, like numbers and strings, or composite values, like other objects). Objects in JavaScript have a dual nature: an object can represent an unordered collection of named values or an ordered collection of numbered values. In the latter case, the object is called an array . Although objects and arrays are fundamentally the same data type in JavaScript, they behave quite differently and will usually be considered distinct types throughout this book.

JavaScript defines another special kind of object, known as a function . A function is an object that has executable code associated with it. A function may be invoked to perform some kind of operation. Like arrays, functions behave differently from other kinds of objects, and JavaScript defines special language syntax for working with them. Thus, we'll treat the function data type independently of the object and array types.

In addition to functions and arrays, core JavaScript defines a few other specialized kinds of objects. These objects do not represent new data types, just new classes of objects. The Date class defines objects that represent dates, the RegExp class defines objects that represent regular expressions (a powerful pattern-matching tool described in Chapter 10), and the Error class defines objects that represent syntax and runtime errors that can occur in a JavaScript program.

The remainder of this chapter documents each of the primitive data types in detail. It also introduces the object, array, and function data types, which are fully documented in Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 9. Finally, it provides an overview of the Date, RegExp, and Error classes, which are documented in full detail in the core reference section of this book.

3.1. Numbers

Numbers are the most basic data type; they require very little explanation. JavaScript differs from programming languages such as C and Java in that it does not make a distinction between integer values and floating-point values. All numbers in JavaScript are represented as floating-point values. JavaScript represents numbers using the 64-bit floating-point format defined by the IEEE 754 standard,[5] which means it can represent numbers as large as ±1.7976931348623157 x 10308 and as small as ±5 x 10 -324.

[5]This format should be familiar to Java programmers as the format of the double type. It is also the double format used in almost all modern implementations of C and C++.

When a number appears directly in a JavaScript program, we call it a numeric literal. JavaScript supports numeric literals in several formats, as described in the following sections. Note that any numeric literal can be preceded by a minus sign (-) to make the number negative. Technically, however, - is the unary negation operator (see Chapter 5), not part of the numeric literal syntax.

3.1.5. Special Numeric Values

JavaScript uses several special numeric values. When a floating-point value becomes larger than the largest representable finite number, the result is a special infinity value, which JavaScript prints as Infinity. Similarly, when a negative value becomes lower than the last representable negative number, the result is negative infinity, printed as -Infinity.

Another special JavaScript numeric value is returned when a mathematical operation (such as division of zero by zero) yields an undefined result or an error. In this case, the result is the special not-a-number value, printed as NaN. The not-a-number value behaves unusually: it does not compare equal to any number, including itself! For this reason, a special function, isNaN( ), is required to test for this value. A related function, isFinite( ) , tests whether a number is not NaN and is not positive or negative infinity.

Table 3-1 lists several constants that JavaScript defines to represent these special numeric values.

Table 3-1. Special numeric constants

Constant

Meaning

Infinity

Special value to represent infinity

NaN

Special not-a-number value

Number.MAX_VALUE

Largest representable number

Number.MIN_VALUE

Smallest (closest to zero) representable number

Number.NaN

Special not-a-number value

Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY

Special value to represent infinity

Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY

Special value to represent negative infinity

The Infinity and NaN constants are defined by the ECMAScript v1 standard and are not implemented prior to JavaScript 1.3. The various Number constants, however, have been implemented since JavaScript 1.1.



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