The bigint is a new primitive data type in JavaScript. It was introduced in ES11 version of JavaScript. it represents the whole number. It can hold numbers larger than 253 – 1. The BigInt uses the arbitrary-precision arithmetic. This article covers how to use bigInt, the arithmetic operations allowed, how to convert bigint to number and number to bigint, etc.
Table of Contents
Defining bigint
There are two ways in which you create bigint.
A bigInt is created by appending n to the end of an integer literal
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | let big1 = 9007199254740991n; console.log(typeof(big1)) //******output*** //bigint |
You can even use binary, octal or hexadecimal notation. Just use n at the end. Legacy octal syntax (0640) is not allowed, only new-style (0o064n).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | let bigHex = 0xffffffffffffffn console.log(bigHex); //72057594037927935n const bigBin = 0b11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111n console.log(bigBin) //9007199254740991n const bigOct = 0o24045162451214n console.log(bigOct) //1379385627276n |
or by calling the function Global function BigInt()
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | let big2 = BigInt(9007199254099); console.log(typeof(big2)) //******output*** //bigint |
1 2 3 4 | let bigNum= BigInt("9045141578140991"); console.log(bigNum) //9045141578140991n |
Hex, binary & octal numbers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | let bigHex = BigInt("0xffffffffffffff"); console.log(bigHex); //72057594037927935n const bigBin = BigInt("0b11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111"); console.log(bigBin) //9007199254740991n const bigOct = BigInt("0o24045162451214n") console.log(bigOct) //1379385627276n |
Max Value
The bigint can handle the large values and not limited as the Number datatype, which has (Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER). BigInt is limited by the available memory of the host system
Arithmetic Operations
The BigInt can be used with the following arithmetic operations +, *, -, **, %. Bitwise operators like &, | , ^ , ~, << , >>, (except >>> Zero fill right shift) operators.
The unary operator + is not supported. Also >>> is not supported, as all BigInts are signed
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | let bigVar=9007199254740991n; let b=bigVar+1n; console.log(b); //9007199254740992n b=bigVar*10n; console.log(b); //90071992547409910n b=bigVar/5n; console.log(b); //1801439850948198n |
The / division operator rounds of the final result to the whole number. For example, dividing 5/2 results in 2 and not 2.5. i.e it is an integer and not decimal.
1 2 3 4 | console.log(4n / 2n); //2n console.log(5n / 2n); //2n and not 2.5 |
bigint can not be mixed with operations where numbers are involved as shown below. Either you convert number to bigint or convert bigint to number.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | let numVar=100; let bigVar= 100n; console.log(numVar+bigVar); *** Error ***** Cannot mix BigInt and other types, use explicit conversions |
Convert Number to BigInt
You can use the BigInt function to convert the number to a bigInt
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | let numVar= 100; let bigVar=BigInt(numVar) console.log(bigVar) console.log(typeof(bigVar)) //**output //100n //bigint |
Convert BigInt to Number
You can convert the bigInt to number by using the Number function. Beware of the fact that you may lose precision when you coerce bigint to number.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | let bigVar= 100n; let numVar=Number(bigVar) console.log(numVar) console.log(typeof(numVar)) //**output //100 //number |
Comparison operators
The comparison operators work well between bigInt and a number
1 2 3 4 5 6 | console.log(1n < 2) //true console.log(2n > 1) //true console.log(2n > 2) //false console.log(2n >= 2) //true |
A BigInt 0 is loosely equal (0n==0 is true) to number 0. But is not strictly equal to a Number (0n===0 is false)
1 2 3 4 | console.log(0n === 0) // false console.log(0n == 0) // true |
Conditionals
A BigInt behaves like a Number when converted to Boolean.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Boolean(0n) // false Boolean(12n) // true |
Summary
The bigint is a primitive type. It is added so as to support the large number. bigint cannot be used in the operations involving numbers. They must be coerced to do that. Beware of the fact that you may lose precision when you coerce bigint to number and back. You can make use of comparison operators to compare bigInt with a number.
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