- Operator

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Description

Used to find the difference between two numbers or to indicate the negative value of a numeric expression.

Syntax 1

result = number1 - number2

Syntax 2

-number

The - operator syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
result	Any numeric variable.
number	Any numeric expression.
number1	Any numeric expression.
number2	Any numeric expression.

Remarks

In Syntax 1, the - operator is the arithmetic subtraction operator used to find the difference between two numbers. In Syntax 2, the - operator is used as the unary negation operator to indicate the negative value of an expression.

For Syntax 1, as for all arithmetic operators, JScript will generate runtime errors for every case in the table below where an E is indicated:

	obj	as	ns	num	bool	undef	null
obj	N	E	N	N	N	E	E
as	E	E	E	E	E	E	E
ns	N	E	N	N	N	E	E
num	N	E	N	N	N	E	E
bool	N	E	N	N	N	E	E
undef	E	E	E	E	E	E	E
null	E	E	E	E	E	E	E

obj = Object, as = Alphanumeric String, ns = Numeric String, num = Number, bool = Boolean, undef = Undefined, null = Null value.

For Syntax 2, as for all unary operators, expressions are evaluated as follows:

• If applied to undefined or null expressions, a runtime error is raised.
• Objects are converted to strings.
• Strings are converted to numbers if possible. If not, a runtime error is raised.
• Booleans are treated as numbers (0 if false, 1 if true).
• The operator is applied to the resulting number.

For the - operator, if expression is nonzero, result is equal to expression with its sign reversed. If expression is zero, result is zero.