BigInt.prototype.toString()
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2020.
The toString()
method of BigInt
values returns a string representing the specified BigInt
value. The trailing "n" is not part of the string.
Try it
Syntax
toString()
toString(radix)
Parameters
radix
Optional-
An integer in the range 2 through 36 specifying the base to use for representing the BigInt value. Defaults to 10.
Return value
A string representing the specified BigInt
value.
Exceptions
RangeError
-
Thrown if
radix
is less than 2 or greater than 36.
Description
The BigInt
object overrides the toString
method of Object
; it does not inherit
Object.prototype.toString()
. For BigInt
values, the toString()
method returns a string representation of the value in the specified radix.
For radixes above 10, the letters of the alphabet indicate digits greater than 9. For example, for hexadecimal numbers (base 16) a
through f
are used.
If the specified BigInt value is negative, the sign is preserved. This is the case even if the radix is 2; the string returned is the positive binary representation of the BigInt value preceded by a -
sign, not the two's complement of the BigInt value.
The toString()
method requires its this
value to be a BigInt
primitive or wrapper object. It throws a TypeError
for other this
values without attempting to coerce them to BigInt values.
Because BigInt
doesn't have a [Symbol.toPrimitive]()
method, JavaScript calls the toString()
method automatically when a BigInt
object is used in a context expecting a string, such as in a template literal. However, BigInt primitive values do not consult the toString()
method to be coerced to strings — rather, they are directly converted using the same algorithm as the initial toString()
implementation.
BigInt.prototype.toString = () => "Overridden";
console.log(`${1n}`); // "1"
console.log(`${Object(1n)}`); // "Overridden"
Examples
Using toString()
17n.toString(); // "17"
66n.toString(2); // "1000010"
254n.toString(16); // "fe"
(-10n).toString(2); // "-1010"
(-0xffn).toString(2); // "-11111111"
Negative-zero BigInt
There is no negative-zero BigInt
as there are no negative zeros in integers. -0.0
is an IEEE floating-point concept that only appears in the JavaScript Number
type.
(-0n).toString(); // "0"
BigInt(-0).toString(); // "0"
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-bigint.prototype.tostring |
Browser compatibility
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