Math.max()
The Math.max()
function returns the largest of the zero or more numbers given as input parameters, or NaN
if any parameter isn't a number and can't be converted into one.
Syntax
Math.max()
Math.max(value0)
Math.max(value0, value1)
Math.max(value0, value1, /* ... ,*/ valueN)
Parameters
value1
,value2
, ... ,valueN
-
Zero or more numbers among which the largest value will be selected and returned.
Return value
The largest of the given numbers. If any one or more of the parameters cannot be
converted into a number, NaN
is returned. The result is
-Infinity
if no parameters are provided.
Description
Because max()
is a static method of Math
, you always use it
as Math.max()
, rather than as a method of a Math
object you
created (Math
is not a constructor).
If no arguments are given, the result is -Infinity
.
If at least one of arguments cannot be converted to a number, the result is
NaN
.
Examples
Using Math.max()
Math.max(10, 20); // 20
Math.max(-10, -20); // -10
Math.max(-10, 20); // 20
Getting the maximum element of an array
Array.reduce()
can be used to find the maximum
element in a numeric array, by comparing each value:
var arr = [1,2,3];
var max = arr.reduce(function(a, b) {
return Math.max(a, b);
}, -Infinity);
The following function uses Function.prototype.apply()
to get the maximum
of an array. getMaxOfArray([1, 2, 3])
is equivalent to
Math.max(1, 2, 3)
, but you can use getMaxOfArray()
on
programmatically constructed arrays. This should only be used for arrays with relatively
few elements.
function getMaxOfArray(numArray) {
return Math.max.apply(null, numArray);
}
The new spread operator
is a shorter way of writing the apply
solution to get the
maximum of an array:
var arr = [1, 2, 3];
var max = Math.max(...arr);
However, both spread (...
) and apply
will either fail or
return the wrong result if the array has too many elements, because they try to pass the
array elements as function parameters.
See Using apply and built-in functions
for more details. The reduce
solution does not have this problem.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-math.max |
Browser compatibility
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