Why is number 8 equal to 010 ??

[ajoo]

Hi all,

If you try out this simple piece of code below :

var i:Number;

for(i=0;i<20;i++)
{
	if(i === 010){
		trace("yes");
	}else{
		trace("no");
	}
}

you will find that for 010 === 8, yes is echoed, for 011===10 yes is echoed too and I bet there would be more such values too.

Any ideas why this is so ? How to get around this issue ?

Thanks all !

[fruitbeard]

Hi,

It seems you are entering the bounds of Binary Number System although what you have done is wrong, I know not why.
https://www.mathsisfun.com/binary-number-system.html

Try this code and see what it traces

var i:Number;
var output:String;

for (i = 0; i < 26; i++)
{
    if (i.toString(2) === "1000")
    {
        output = "Positive";
    }
    else
    {
        output = "Negative";
    }
    trace(i + "\t:\t" + output + " - " + i.toString(2));
} 

Perhaps I'm mistaken too, look into octal numebrs !!!

[Northcode]

010 is 8 in octal, check out http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/web2/action/ch04_03.htm for an explanation of numeric literals in ActionScript

[ajoo]

Hi fruitbeard and Northcode. Thanks for that insight. It's the octal 8 but i am surprised that a notation is not used like the leading 'x' in to denote the hexdecimal numbers. Is there a way to indicate to the system that the numbers being input are not octal?

If I am taking an input from a user and I wish to check if it's the number 8 then can't the user simply fool the system by adding 010 instead? I don't think that there is a way - at least an elegant way - to disallow the first character to be a 0 in an "input box". So if I am checking for the number 8, I guess the only way around would be to get the input text and then strip off any leading zeros.

Am i thinking correct or is there a better solution to this ?
Thanks loads.