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Discussion on: 8 neat Javascript tricks you didn't know in 4 minutes.

 
zackdotcomputer profile image
Zack Sheppard

I agree with Lloyd here about using the single "+" instead of writing "parseInt". While it's a fun trick to know about, this would also be a thing I would flag (or worse, miss) in a PR and ask to be changed to the more understandable "parseInt".

Economy of expression or terseness isn't more valuable than understandability, otherwise we'd all minify our code before committing it.

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josefjelinek profile image
Josef Jelinek

parseInt(s) is not a good example, it works very differently and has a radix issue... parseFloat(s) is closer, but still ignores any junk at the end of the string... I usually call Number(s) (not new Number(x), which has even worse problems), which is explicit and behaves just like unary + operator... Even this has a surprising issue of an empty string evaluating to 0...

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sureshvv_37 profile image
sureshvv

Do not confuse Economy of Expression with Minification because the intention of the former is to increase clarity and ease of understanding. Sometimes fewer words express more clearly what is intended and longer sentences are a means of hiding the real crux of the message.

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