Number.prototype.toPrecision()

The toPrecision() method returns a string representing the Number object to the specified precision.

Syntax

numObj.toPrecision([precision])

Parameters

precision

Optional. An integer specifying the number of significant digits.

Return value

A string representing a Number object in fixed-point or exponential notation rounded to precision significant digits. See the discussion of rounding in the description of the Number.prototype.toFixed() method, which also applies to toPrecision().

If the precision argument is omitted, behaves as Number.prototype.toString(). If the precision argument is a non-integer value, it is rounded to the nearest integer.

Exceptions

RangeError

If precision is not between 1 and 100 (inclusive), a RangeError is thrown. Implementations are allowed to support larger and smaller values as well. ECMA-262 only requires a precision of up to 21 significant digits.

Examples

Using toPrecision

var numObj = 5.123456;

console.log(numObj.toPrecision());    // logs '5.123456'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(5));   // logs '5.1235'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(2));   // logs '5.1'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(1));   // logs '5'

numObj = 0.000123

console.log(numObj.toPrecision());    // logs '0.000123'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(5));   // logs '0.00012300'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(2));   // logs '0.00012'
console.log(numObj.toPrecision(1));   // logs '0.0001' 

// note that exponential notation might be returned in some circumstances
console.log((1234.5).toPrecision(2)); // logs '1.2e+3'

Specifications

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

See also

• Number.prototype.toFixed()
• Number.prototype.toExponential()
• Number.prototype.toString()