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Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY static data property represents the positive Infinity value.

Try it

function checkNumber(bigNumber) {
  if (bigNumber === Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY) {
    return "Process number as Infinity";
  }
  return bigNumber;
}

console.log(checkNumber(Number.MAX_VALUE));
// Expected output: 1.7976931348623157e+308

console.log(checkNumber(Number.MAX_VALUE * 2));
// Expected output: "Process number as Infinity"

Value

The same as the value of the global Infinity property.

Property attributes of Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY
Writable no
Enumerable no
Configurable no

Description

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

  • Any positive value, including POSITIVE_INFINITY, multiplied by POSITIVE_INFINITY is POSITIVE_INFINITY.
  • Any negative value, including NEGATIVE_INFINITY, multiplied by POSITIVE_INFINITY is NEGATIVE_INFINITY.
  • Any positive number divided by POSITIVE_INFINITY is positive zero (as defined in IEEE 754).
  • Any negative number divided by POSITIVE_INFINITY is negative zero (as defined in IEEE 754.
  • Zero multiplied by POSITIVE_INFINITY is NaN.
  • NaN multiplied by POSITIVE_INFINITY is NaN.
  • POSITIVE_INFINITY, divided by any negative value except NEGATIVE_INFINITY, is NEGATIVE_INFINITY.
  • POSITIVE_INFINITY, divided by any positive value except POSITIVE_INFINITY, is POSITIVE_INFINITY.
  • POSITIVE_INFINITY, divided by either NEGATIVE_INFINITY or POSITIVE_INFINITY, is NaN.
  • Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY > x is true for any number x that isn't POSITIVE_INFINITY.

You might use the Number.POSITIVE_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 POSITIVE_INFINITY is a static property of Number, you always use it as Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY, rather than as a property of a number value.

Examples

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Using POSITIVE_INFINITY

In the following example, the variable bigNumber is assigned a value that is larger than the maximum value. When the if statement executes, bigNumber has the value Infinity, so bigNumber is set to a more manageable value before continuing.

let bigNumber = Number.MAX_VALUE * 2;

if (bigNumber === Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY) {
  bigNumber = returnFinite();
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile Server
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android WebView on iOS Bun Deno Node.js
POSITIVE_INFINITY 1 12 1 3 1 18 4 10.1 1 1.0 4.4 1 1.0.0 1.0 0.10.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Number/POSITIVE_INFINITY