How to Check if Variable is Float in Javascript

In this tutorial, you will learn how to check if variable is float in javascript. In a floating number, the whole number part  is separated from the fractional part using a decimal point or dot (.).

There are numerous ways to check if a variable is float or not. We are going to use one of the easiest solutions which involve the usage of the modulus (%) and ternary (?) operators. The ternary operator is also known as the conditional operator which acts similar to the if-else statement. The modulus operator returns the remainder of the division after dividing one number with another.

In the following example, we have one global variable and upon click of a button, we will check if the variable is float or not and display the result on the screen.  Please have a look over the code example and the steps given below.

HTML & CSS

  • We have 3 elements in the HTML file (div, button, and h1). The div element is just a wrapper for the rest of the elements.
  • The innerText for the button element is “Check” and for the h1 element, it is “Result”.
  • We have done some basic styling using CSS and added the link to our style.css stylesheet inside the head element.
  • We have also included our javascript file script.js with a script tag at the bottom.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
    <title>Document</title>
</head>
<body>
    
    <div>
        <button>Check</button>
        <h1>Result</h1>
    </div>

    <script src="script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
body {
    text-align: center;
}

div {
    display: inline-block;
}

button {
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 10px 20px;
}

Javascript

  • We have selected the button element and h1 element using the document.querySelector() method and stored them in btnCheck and output variables respectively.
  • We have a global variable myVar which holds a floating number as its value.
  • We have attached a click event listener to the button element.
  • In the event handler function, we are using modulus (%) and ternary (?) operators to verify whether myVar is float or not. Depending upon the result of the check, we will assign “Float” or “Not Float” to the result variable
  • We are displaying the result in the h1 element using the innerText property.
let btnCheck = document.querySelector("button");
let output = document.querySelector("h1");

let myVar = 11.5;
btnCheck.addEventListener("click", () => {
  let result = myVar % 1 != 0 ? "Float" : "Not Float";
  output.innerText = result;
});