Name
NaN Global Property — constant representing invalid numeric data (Not-a-Number)
Availability
Flash 5
Synopsis
NaN
Access
Read-only
Description
NaN is a special numeric constant used to
represent invalid numeric data (NaN is an acronym
for “Not-a-Number”). Numeric operations that cannot be
resolved to a legitimate number yield the value
NaN. For example:
Math.sqrt(-1); // An imaginary number that cannot be represented 15 - "coffee cup"; // "coffee cup" cannot be converted to a number.
Note that NaN is still numeric data, even though
it is not a calculable number:
typeof NaN; // Yields "number"
Usage
The value NaN is hardly ever used directly in
source code but rather serves as a way for an operation to return an
error condition. Because NaN does not compare
equal to itself, the only way you can detect it is with the global
function isNaN( ). NaN is
shorthand for Number.NaN.
See Also
isNaN( ), Number.NaN; Section 4.3.3 in Chapter 4
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