UNB/ CS/ David Bremner/ teaching/ cs2613/ books/ mdn/ Reference/ Global Objects/ Number/ Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY

The Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY static data property represents the negative Infinity value.

Value

The same as the negative value of the global Infinity property.

Description

The Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY value behaves slightly differently than mathematical infinity:

You might use the Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY property to indicate an error condition that returns a finite number in case of success. Note, however, that NaN would be more appropriate in such a case.

Because NEGATIVE_INFINITY is a static property of Number, you always use it as Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY, rather than as a property of a number value.

Examples

Using NEGATIVE_INFINITY

In the following example, the variable smallNumber is assigned a value that is smaller than the minimum value. When the if statement executes, smallNumber has the value -Infinity, so smallNumber is set to a more manageable value before continuing.

let smallNumber = -Number.MAX_VALUE * 2;

if (smallNumber === Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY) {
  smallNumber = returnFinite();
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also