TheNaN global property is a value representing Not-A-Number.

Try it

function sanitize(x) {  if (isNaN(x)) {    return NaN;  }  return x;}console.log(sanitize("1"));// Expected output: "1"console.log(sanitize("NotANumber"));// Expected output: NaN

Value

The same number value asNumber.NaN.

Description

NaN is a property of theglobal object. In other words, it is a variable in global scope.

In modern browsers,NaN is a non-configurable, non-writable property. Even when this is not the case, avoid overriding it.

There are five different types of operations that returnNaN:

• Failed number conversion (e.g., explicit ones likeparseInt("blabla"),Number(undefined), or implicit ones likeMath.abs(undefined))
• Math operation where the result is not a real number (e.g.,Math.sqrt(-1))
• Indeterminate form (e.g.,0 * Infinity,1 ** Infinity,Infinity / Infinity,Infinity - Infinity)
• A method or expression whose operand is or gets coerced toNaN (e.g.,7 ** NaN,7 * "blabla") — this meansNaN is contagious
• Other cases where an invalid value is to be represented as a number (e.g., an invalidDatenew Date("blabla").getTime(),"".charCodeAt(1))

NaN and its behaviors are not invented by JavaScript. Its semantics in floating point arithmetic (including thatNaN !== NaN) are specified byIEEE 754.NaN's behaviors include:

• IfNaN is involved in a mathematical operation (but notbitwise operations), the result is usually alsoNaN. (Seecounter-example below.)
• WhenNaN is one of the operands of any relational comparison (>,<,>=,<=), the result is alwaysfalse.
• NaN compares unequal (via==,!=,===, and!==) to any other value — including to anotherNaN value.

NaN is also one of thefalsy values in JavaScript.

Examples

Testing against NaN

To tell if a value isNaN, useNumber.isNaN() orisNaN() to most clearly determine whether a value isNaN — or, sinceNaN is the only value that compares unequal to itself, you can perform a self-comparison likex !== x.

NaN === NaN; // falseNumber.NaN === NaN; // falseisNaN(NaN); // trueisNaN(Number.NaN); // trueNumber.isNaN(NaN); // truefunction valueIsNaN(v) {  return v !== v;}valueIsNaN(1); // falsevalueIsNaN(NaN); // truevalueIsNaN(Number.NaN); // true

However, do note the difference betweenisNaN() andNumber.isNaN(): the former will returntrue if the value is currentlyNaN, or if it is going to beNaN after it is coerced to a number, while the latter will returntrue only if the value is currentlyNaN:

isNaN("hello world"); // trueNumber.isNaN("hello world"); // false

For the same reason, using a BigInt value will throw an error withisNaN() and not withNumber.isNaN():

isNaN(1n); // TypeError: Conversion from 'BigInt' to 'number' is not allowed.Number.isNaN(1n); // false

Additionally, some array methods cannot findNaN, while others can. Namely, the index-finding ones (indexOf(),lastIndexOf()) cannot findNaN, while the value-finding ones (includes()) can:

const arr = [2, 4, NaN, 12];arr.indexOf(NaN); // -1arr.includes(NaN); // true// Methods accepting a properly defined predicate can always find NaNarr.findIndex((n) => Number.isNaN(n)); // 2

For more information aboutNaN and its comparison, seeEquality comparison and sameness.

Observably distinct NaN values

It's possible to produce two floating point numbers with different binary representations but are bothNaN, because inIEEE 754 encoding, any floating point number with exponent0x7ff and a non-zero mantissa isNaN. In JavaScript, you can do bit-level manipulation usingtyped arrays.

const f2b = (x) => new Uint8Array(new Float64Array([x]).buffer);const b2f = (x) => new Float64Array(x.buffer)[0];// Get a byte representation of NaNconst n = f2b(NaN);const m = f2b(NaN);// Change the sign bit, which doesn't matter for NaNn[7] += 2 ** 7;// n[0] += 2**7; for big endian processorsconst nan2 = b2f(n);console.log(nan2); // NaNconsole.log(Object.is(nan2, NaN)); // trueconsole.log(f2b(NaN)); // Uint8Array(8) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 248, 127]console.log(f2b(nan2)); // Uint8Array(8) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 248, 255]// Change the first bit, which is the least significant bit of the mantissa and doesn't matter for NaNm[0] = 1;// m[7] = 1; for big endian processorsconst nan3 = b2f(m);console.log(nan3); // NaNconsole.log(Object.is(nan3, NaN)); // trueconsole.log(f2b(NaN)); // Uint8Array(8) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 248, 127]console.log(f2b(nan3)); // Uint8Array(8) [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 248, 127]

Silently escaping NaN

NaN propagates through mathematical operations, so it's usually sufficient to test forNaN once at the end of calculation to detect error conditions. The only case whereNaN gets silently escaped is when usingexponentiation with an exponent of0, which immediately returns1 without testing the base's value.

NaN ** 0 === 1; // true

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Number.NaN
• Number.isNaN()
• isNaN()