Question

This code doesn’t work:

var number = $(this).find('.number').text();
var current = 600;
if (current > number){
     // do something
}

HTML:

<div class="number">400</div>

Seems there is some problem with converting text() from text-like value to number.

What is the solution?

Answer 1

Always use parseInt with a radix (base) as the second parameter, or you will get unexpected results:

var number = parseInt($(this).find('.number').text(), 10);

A popular variation however is to use + as a unitary operator. This will always convert with base 10 and never throw an error, just return zero NaN which can be tested with the function isNaN() if it’s an invalid number:

var number = +($(this).find('.number').text());