Convert long numbers to short and compact form in JavaScript
JavaScript amazes me everyday when I find something can be done using native JavaScript instead of using heavy-weight libraries or inventing my own functions.
Recently, I found one such thing. There’s an Intl object which is a standard built-in object in JavaScript that provides language sensitive string comparison, number formatting, and date and time formatting.
The Intl object provides access to several constructors as well as functionality common to the internationalization constructors and other language sensitive functions.
There is one such constructor called NumberFormat() which lets you do language-sensitive number formatting.
For instance, it lets you format a long number to its compact counterpart by providing notation: "compact" as an option like so.
new Intl.NumberFormat('en-GB', {
notation: "compact"
}).format(987654321);
// → 988M
new Intl.NumberFormat('en-GB', {
notation: "compact"
}).format(78656666589);
// → 79B
Or you can pass another option compactDisplay: "long" to get its more verbose format.
new Intl.NumberFormat(undefined, {
notation: "compact",
compactDisplay: "long"
}).format(78656);
// → 79 thousand
You can choose not to supply locale if you’re not sure about it. You can specify undefined instead of a locale and it’d still work.
new Intl.NumberFormat(undefined, {
notation: "compact",
compactDisplay: "long"
}).format(78656);
// → 79 thousand
Scientific and Engineering notation
Apart from “compact”, you can also pass in the “engineering” and “scientific” to the notation to get the respective format of the number respectively, like so.
new Intl.NumberFormat(undefined, {
notation: "scientific"
}).format(78656666589);
// → 7.866E10
new Intl.NumberFormat(undefined, {
notation: "engineering"
}).format(78656666589);
// → 78.657E9
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👋 Hi there! I'm Amit. I write articles about all things web development. You can become a sponsor on my blog to help me continue my writing journey and get your brand in front of thousands of eyes.
