What happens if we add an n
suffix to a regular number in JavaScript? What’s the output?
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In the first line we try to add two numbers. These aren’t regular numbers, but rather two instances of BigInt
— special objects that are used to safely represent numbers bigger than Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER
.
There are two ways to create BigInt
:
- add a suffix
n
to any number in JavaScript
const big = 1000000n; // 1000000n
- call the constructor
BigInt(val)
and pass in a numerical value
const bigN = BigInt(123) // 123n
This value doesn’t have to a number. I can be a string.
const bigS = BigInt("234") // 234n
You can also use hex and binary notation.
const bigHex = BigInt("0xffffffffffffffff") // 18446744073709551615n
const bigBin = BigInt("0b111") // 7n
The BigInt
numbers behave just like the regular ones. By adding 1n
and 2n
we get 3n
. This is BigInt
as well, and typeof 3n
returns a string bigint
, which will be logged to the screen when we call console.log
.
ANSWER: The n
suffix turns a regular JavaScript number into a BigInt
. The string bigint
will be logged to the console.
Top comments (2)
Thanks for posting so many of these handy articles! I actually didn't know about the 'n' suffix, so this was a particularly helpful one for me.
I'm glad you liked it, Cooper. I'll be posting more of the same 🚀