JSON transfer of bigint: 12000000000002539 is converted to 12000000000002540?

by

The value is actually not exceeding the maximum numeric value in JavaScript (which is “only” 1.7308 or so).

However, the value is exceeding the range of “integral precision”. It is not that the wrong number is sent: rather, it is that the literal 12000000000002539 can only be represented as precisely as 12000000000002540, and thus there was never the correct numeric value in JavaScript. (The range of integrals is about +/- 253.)

This is an interesting phenomena of using a double relative-precision (binary64 in IEEE-754 speak) type to store all numeric values, including integers:

12000000000002539 === 12000000000002540 // true

The maximum significant number of decimal digits that be precisely stored as a numeric value is 15 (15.95, really). In the above, there are 17 significant digits, so some of the least-significant information is silently lost. In this case, as the JavaScript parser/engine reads in the literal value.

The only safe way to handle integral numbers of this magnitude in JavaScript is to use a string literal or to break it down in another fashion (e.g. a custom numeric type or a “bigint library”). However, I recommend just using a string, as it is human readable, relatively compact (only two extra characters in JSON), and doesn’t require special serialization. Since the value is just an “id” in this case, I hope that math does not need to be performed upon it šŸ™‚

Happy coding.

More Related Contents:

  1. How to insert into JSON?
  2. Convert XML to JSON (and back) using Javascript
  3. “SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0"
  4. Is the order of elements in a JSON list preserved?
  5. jQuery.parseJSON throws ā€œInvalid JSONā€ error due to escaped single quote in JSON
  6. Sum JavaScript object propertyA values with the same object propertyB in an array of objects
  7. Angular 5 Service to read local .json file
  8. Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token with JSON.parse
  9. How to convert JSON to CSV format and store in a variable
  10. Merge keys array and values array into an object in JavaScript
  11. How might I extract the property values of a JavaScript object into an array?
  12. Is this simple string considered valid JSON?
  13. in JSON, Why is each name quoted?
  14. How to stringify inherited objects to JSON?
  15. JSON.stringify deep objects
  16. Angular – Can’t make ng-repeat orderBy work
  17. How to inject HTML into a template with polymer
  18. Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token u in JSON at position 0
  19. How to use Select2 with JSON via Ajax request?
  20. Not a Legal JSONP API — How to get data without CALLBACK parameter
  21. d3 js – loading json without a http get
  22. IE10/11 Ajax XHR error – SCRIPT7002: XMLHttpRequest: Network Error 0x2ef3
  23. TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON in nodejs
  24. Hide certain values in output from JSON.stringify()
  25. Why does the jQuery JSON parser need double escaping for backslashes?
  26. Access JSON or JS property using string
  27. Why does JSON.stringify not serialize non-enumerable properties?
  28. creating highchart with ajax json data
  29. Alternatives of JSON.stringify() in JavaScript
  30. Grouping JSON by values

Leave a Comment