dweebd

Another interesting technique I spotted in the gRaphaël code base is the use of a prefixed + used to cast a variable to a numeric type.

var data = [ undefined, null, 1, 10.2, new Date() ];
for (var i = 0, len = data.length; i < len; i++)
  console.log('cast %o: %o', data[i], +data[i]);

If you run this code, notice how casting undefined returns NaN which will ripple through your calculations. However, my favorite thing about this technique is how it handles Date objects. The following examples are equivalent.

var now = new Date();
console.log('now.valueOf: %o', now.valueOf());
console.log('+now: %o', +now);

Nice.