The unary negation (-) precedes its operand and negates it, after trying to convert it to number.

Syntax:

-expression

Returns:

• a Number

Description

The unary negation (-) can convert the same types / values as the unary plus (+) operator can.

Values that can’t be converted will evaluate to NaN (there is no -NaN).

Examples:

-42           // -42
-"42"         // -42
-true         // -1
-false        // -0
-null         // -0
-undefined    // NaN
-NaN          // NaN
-"foo"        // NaN
-{}           // NaN
-function(){} // NaN

Note that attempting to convert an array can result in unexpected return values.

In the background, arrays are first converted to their string representations:

[].toString() === '';
[1].toString() === '1';
[1, 2].toString() === '1,2';

The operator then attempts to convert those strings to numbers:

-[]           // -0  ( === -'' )
-[1]          // -1  ( === -'1' )
-[1, 2]       // NaN ( === -'1,2' )