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NaN

NaN

The global NaN property is a value representing Not-A-Number.

Syntax

NaN

Description

NaN is a property of the global object.

The initial value of NaN is Not-A-Number — the same as the value of Number.NaN. In modern browsers, NaN is a non-configurable, non-writable property. Even when this is not the case, avoid overriding it.

It is rather rare to use NaN in a program. It is the returned value when Math functions fail (Math.sqrt(-1)) or when a function trying to parse a number fails (parseInt("blabla")).

Testing against NaN

NaN compares unequal (via ==, !=, ===, and !==) to any other value -- including to another NaN value.  Use Number.isNaN() or isNaN() to most clearly determine whether a value is NaN.  Or perform a self-comparison: NaN, and only NaN, will compare unequal to itself.

NaN === NaN;        // false
Number.NaN === NaN; // false
isNaN(NaN);         // true
isNaN(Number.NaN);  // true

function valueIsNaN(v) { return v !== v; }
valueIsNaN(1);          // false
valueIsNaN(NaN);        // true
valueIsNaN(Number.NaN); // true


  Created by Mozilla Contributors, license: CC-BY-SA 2.5