JavaScript: How to convert an HTML string into a JavaScript number?

Question

I have a number that I need to pull from my html:

<span>123,456.78</span>

How can I convert this string into a number that I can do math on?

var numberString = $('span').text();
var realNumber = Number(numberString); //returns NaN

A jQuery-only solution would be okay.

rlemon · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 23:08:29Z

7

parseInt() or parseFloat() would just about do it.

var number = parseFloat($('span').text());

after checking and seeing this doesn't work...

try

~~var number = $('span').text().replace(/([^0-9\.])/g,"");~~

var number = parseFloat($('span').text().replace(/([^0-9\\.])/g,""));

edited Sep 13, 2011 at 23:08

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 22:39

rlemon

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4 Comments

lonesomeday Over a year ago

parseFloat("123,456.78") returns 123. That doesn't seem like a useful result to me.

rlemon Over a year ago

this update will replace all none number and '.' characters. including '$' ',' and '¢'

rlemon Over a year ago

@lonesomeday, yes.. i tested it after i posted it. see update.

Ben Over a year ago

@rlemon. You'd still need to call parseFloat in the second method to convert to a number

lonesomeday · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 22:42:08Z

5

I'm not sure what realNumber does, but here's how I'd convert that string into a number:

var numberString = $('span').text();
var amount = + numberString.replace(/,/g, '');

This removes the commas, then uses the + unary operator to convert the string to a number. In your example, the result is the number 123456.78.

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 22:42

lonesomeday

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4 Comments

Dave Newton Over a year ago

Good catch on the comma (although I'd still use parseFloat); upvoting yours too. Still deleting mine.

lonesomeday Over a year ago

@Dave I prefer to use the unary operator because it returns NaN when it fails, rather than an incorrect number.

Andrew Over a year ago

Oops! I just realized my code sample was wrong. I was trying to assign the number to a variable called "realNumber", not call a function.

Andrew Over a year ago

Nice! - "unary plus is the fastest and preferred way of converting something into a number"

Scherbius.com · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 22:57:16Z

0

updated

var numberString = $('span').text();

var number = Number(numberString.replace(/[^0-9\.]+/g,""));

edited Sep 13, 2011 at 22:57

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 22:43

Scherbius.com

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