Recently I’ve been developing a lot of reporting applications in JavaScript and have collected a few helper functions that I use regularly for number formatting. Here’s a look at each function and how you can use it in your own projects.

Rounding a number to a defined decimal precision

Input: 1234.567
Output: 1234.6 (to one decimal precision)

Usage:

var myNumOld = 1234.567
var myNumNew = numberPrecision(myNumOld, 1)

Function:

/**
 * Returns a rounded number to the precision specified.
 * @author Darian Cabot
 * @see https://www.dariancabot.com
 * @param {Number} value A number to be rounded.
 * @param {Number} decimals The number of decimal places to round to.
 * @returns the value rounded to the number of decimal places specified.
 * @type Number
 */
function numberPrecision(value, decimals)
{
  return Math.round(value * Math.pow(10, decimals)) / Math.pow(10, decimals);
}

Adding commas to a number to break up thousands

Input: 1234.567
Output: 1,234.567

Usage:

var myNumOld = 1234.567
var myNumNew = addCommas(myNumOld)

Function:

/**
 * Formats a numeric string by adding commas for cosmetic purposes.
 * @author Keith Jenci
 * @see http://www.mredkj.com/javascript/nfbasic.html
 * @param {String} nStr A number with or without decimals.
 * @returns a nicely formatted number.
 * @type String
 */
function addCommas(nStr)
{
  nStr += '';
  var x = nStr.split('.');
  var x1 = x[0];
  var x2 = x.length > 1 ? '.' + x[1] : '';
  var rgx = /(\d+)(\d{3})/;

  while (rgx.test(x1))
  {
    x1 = x1.replace(rgx, '$1' + ',' + '$2');
  }

  return x1 + x2;
}

Adding an ordinal for counting numbers

Input: 23
Output: 23rd

Usage:

var myNumOld = 23
var myNumNew = myNumOld.toOrdinal()

Function:

/**
 * Adds an ordinal to a number (e.g. 'st', 'nd', 'rd', 'th').
 * @author Venkat K
 * @see http://www.eggheadcafe.com/community/aspnet/3/43489/hi.aspx
 * @param {Number} A positive number.
 * @returns a the original number and a ordinal suffix.
 * @type String
 */
Number.prototype.toOrdinal = function()
{
  var n = this % 100;
  var suffix = ['th', 'st', 'nd', 'rd', 'th'];
  var ord = n < 21 ? (n < 4 ? suffix[n] : suffix[0]) : (n % 10 > 4 ? suffix[0] : suffix[n % 10]);
  return this + ord;
}