NaN

NaN is a value representing Not-A-Number. Numeric operations or functions return NaN if they cannot calculate a value. We had seen this with parseInt. It returns NaN, if it can't parse a number. Another example is the calculation of the square root from a negative number:

let age = parseInt('Babylon');
let length = Math.sqrt(-1);

Both age and length get the value NaN.

If you want to test for NaN, you unfortunately can't use strict equality. NaN is the only value in JavaScript that when compared to itself returns false. That is, NaN === NaN results in false. To check if a value is NaN use the Number.isNaN function:

let input = 'Babylon';
let message;
let age = parseInt(input);
if ( Number.isNaN(age) ) {
  message = 'Input is not a number!';
}

The following task is challenging.

Write a function parseFirstInt that takes a string and returns the first integer present in the string. If the string does not contain an integer, you should get NaN.

Example: parseFirstInt('No. 10') should return 10 and parseFirstInt('Babylon') should return NaN.

+ Hint

Use a loop. Within the loop use parseInt().

+ Solution

function parseFirstInt(input) {

  let inputToParse = input;

  for (let i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
    let firstInt = parseInt(inputToParse);
    if (!Number.isNaN(firstInt)) {
      return firstInt;
    }
    inputToParse = inputToParse.substr(1);
  }

  return NaN;
}