BigInt.asUintN()

The BigInt.asUintN() static method truncates a BigInt value to the given number of least significant bits and returns that value as an unsigned integer.

Syntax

BigInt.asUintN(bits, bigint)

Parameters

bits
- : The amount of bits available for the returned BigInt. Should be an integer between 0 and 2⁵³ - 1, inclusive.
bigint
- : The BigInt value to truncate to fit into the supplied bits.

Return value

The value of bigint modulo 2^bits, as an unsigned integer.

Exceptions

RangeError
- : Thrown if bits is negative or greater than 2⁵³ - 1.

Description

The BigInt.asUintN method truncates a BigInt value to the given number of bits, and interprets the result as an unsigned integer. Unsigned integers have no sign bits and are always non-negative. For example, for BigInt.asUintN(4, 25n), the value 25n is truncated to 9n:

25n = 00011001 (base 2)
         ^==== Use only the four remaining bits
===>      1001 (base 2) = 9n

Note: BigInt values are always encoded as two's complement in binary.

Unlike similar language APIs such as Number.prototype.toExponential, asUintN is a static property of BigInt, so you always use it as BigInt.asUintN(), rather than as a method of a BigInt value. Exposing asUintN() as a "standard library function" allows interop with asm.js.

Examples

Staying in 64-bit ranges

The BigInt.asUintN() method can be useful to stay in the range of 64-bit arithmetic.

const max = 2n ** 64n - 1n;

BigInt.asUintN(64, max); // 18446744073709551615n

BigInt.asUintN(64, max + 1n); // 0n
// zero because of overflow: the lowest 64 bits are all zeros