NaN

Stands for "Not a Number." NaN is a term used in mathematics and computer science to describe a non-numeric value. It may also be a placeholder for an expected numeric result that cannot be defined as a floating point number.

There are two primary types of ways in which NaN may be generated: 1) a mathematical calculation and 2) non-numeric input. The following mathematical calculations produce NaN because the result is undefined:

• 0 ÷ 0
• 0 x ∞
• ∞ ÷ ∞

When a calculation involves a character, string, or other non-numeric value, the result may also be NaN. For example, 20 x "horse" does not produce a numeric result since 20 is an integer and "horse" is a string. A function may return NaN as a result of invalid input, which is a preferred alternative to a program crash.

Different programming languages handle NaN values in different ways. For example, in JavaScript, NaN is a property of a global object (i.e. Number.NaN). JavaScript provides an isNan() function to check if a value is NaN. PHP uses the function is_nan() for the same purpose. Both return a boolean value of true or false.