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JavaScript JavaScript Basics (Retired) Working With Numbers Numbers and Strings

Posted by lorcanomahony
lorcanomahony
4,963 Points

Why does my code work ??

I didnt use parseint, how did this work

var secondsInAMinute = 60; var minutesInAnHour = 60; var hoursInADay = 24; var daysInAWeek = 7; var weeksInAYear = 52;

var years = prompt("how old are you? : ");

var secondsInYourLife = years * weeksInAYear * daysInAWeek * hoursInADay * minutesInAnHour * secondsInAMinute;

document.write("You have been alive for " + secondsInYourLife + " seconds");

2 Answers

Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points
Lindsay Sauer
Lindsay Sauer
12,029 Points

Hi there,

JavaScript is very relaxed about the difference between strings and numbers. When you use string concatenation (where you write out "You have been alive for " + secondsInYourLife + " seconds"), JavaScript interprets the int variables as strings because it sees you're trying to concatenate rather than perform addition. Consider the following code:

 var a = 10;
 var b = 20;
 console.log('result is ' + a + b);

The resulting output would be "result is 1020";

makishamaier
makishamaier
3,070 Points
makishamaier
makishamaier
3,070 Points

Your code works because you multiplied the value stored in years. Strings concatenate, but only numbers can multiply. If you had answered the prompt with a string that could not return a value on multiplication (like 'twenty' instead of '20'), then your code would not have worked.

Thus another way to turn string into numbers would be multiplying or dividing by 1. This is NOT best practice.