What is Negative Infinity in JavaScript?

Aarav Patel
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Article

🚀 Introduction

In JavaScript, numbers can go beyond normal ranges. When calculations go too low or invalid operations happen, JavaScript uses special values like Infinity and -Infinity (Negative Infinity) to represent the result. These values are part of JavaScript’s Number type.

📚 What is Negative Infinity?

Negative Infinity (-Infinity) is a special numeric value in JavaScript. It represents a number that is smaller than all other numbers. It is not the same as NaN (Not-a-Number). Unlike NaN, Negative Infinity is still treated as a number.

Example:

console.log(-Infinity);   // -Infinity
console.log(typeof -Infinity); // "number"

Here, -Infinity is recognized as a number type in JavaScript.

🔎 How is Negative Infinity Produced?

Negative Infinity usually appears in situations where a calculation goes beyond the smallest possible number or involves invalid mathematical operations.

Examples:

console.log(-1 / 0);  // -Infinity (negative divided by zero)
console.log(Math.log(0));  // -Infinity (logarithm of 0)
console.log(Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY); // -Infinity (built-in constant)

Dividing a negative number by zero gives -Infinity.
Taking the logarithm of zero also results in -Infinity.
JavaScript provides a constant Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY to represent it.

🧩 Properties of Negative Infinity

Negative Infinity has some special behaviors in JavaScript:

Comparison:

console.log(-Infinity < 0);    // true
console.log(-Infinity < -1000); // true

Negative Infinity is always smaller than any other number.

Equality:

console.log(-Infinity === Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY); // true

Both are the same value.

Arithmetic Operations:
```
console.log(-Infinity + 100);   // -Infinity
console.log(-Infinity * 2);     // -Infinity
console.log(-Infinity * -1);    // Infinity
```
- Adding or multiplying keeps the result as -Infinity.
- Multiplying -Infinity by a negative number turns it into Infinity.

⚠️ Negative Infinity vs NaN

It is important to understand the difference between Negative Infinity and NaN:

Negative Infinity means the value is too small to represent, but it is still a number.
NaN means the value is not a number at all.

Example:

console.log(typeof -Infinity); // "number"
console.log(typeof NaN);       // "number"

console.log(isNaN(-Infinity)); // false
console.log(isNaN(NaN));       // true

Here, -Infinity is a valid number, but NaN is not.

🛠️ When is Negative Infinity Useful?

You may encounter Negative Infinity in these cases:

Error checking: To detect invalid divisions or logarithmic operations.
Limits: To represent the smallest possible number in calculations.
Algorithms: Some algorithms use -Infinity as an initial minimum value when searching for the largest number.

Example (Finding Maximum):

let numbers = [3, 7, 1, 9];
let max = -Infinity;

for (let num of numbers) {
  if (num > max) {
    max = num;
  }
}

console.log(max); // 9

Here, we start with -Infinity so that any real number will be greater than it.

📝 Summary

Negative Infinity in JavaScript is a special numeric value that represents a number smaller than all other numbers. It often appears in situations like dividing a negative number by zero or taking the logarithm of zero. Unlike NaN, it is still considered a number and can be used in comparisons and calculations. It is especially useful in error handling and algorithm design where extreme values are needed.