chapter5_Execercise_Question3

Truck35 · December 20th, 2012, 11:34 AM

I am doing exercise question 3 chapter 5 and I am having problems. We are supposed to modify a function so that it can display with a certain amount of decimal places which are determined by the user. The algorithm that is used in the function that is given as the answer makes no sense to me. Could someone explain to me what is going on in the function below? The program works, I just donât understand how. I will try to use comments so the person answering my question could better help me.

Thanks,
Truck35

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>Chapter 5: Question 3</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">

/*function called fix created to take two parameters*/

    function fix(fixNumber, decimalPlaces)
    {
/*pow method is called to raise 10 to the power entered by user (decimalPlaces) then assigned to the varaible div*/

        var div = Math.pow(10,decimalPlaces);

/*fixNumber is multiplied by div then passed to the round method were it is divided by div.  It is then assigned to fixNumber*/

        fixNumber = new String(Math.round(fixNumber * div) / div);

//I don't fully understand what's happening here.
        if (fixNumber.lastIndexOf(".")==-1)
        {

//I don't full understand what's happening here.
            fixNumber = fixNumber + ".";
        }

//I don't full understand what's happening here.
        var zerosRequired = decimalPlaces - 
            (fixNumber.length - fixNumber.lastIndexOf(".") - 1);

//I don't full understand what's happening here.
        for (; zerosRequired > 0; zerosRequired--)
        {
//I don't full understand what's happening here.
            fixNumber = fixNumber + "0";
        }
/*The value "fixNumber" is returned when method is called
        return fixNumber;
    }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">

/*I understand all the code below*/

var number1 = prompt("Enter the number with decimal places you want to fix","");
var number2 = prompt("How many decimal places do you want?","");

document.write(number1 + " fixed to " + number2 + " decimal places is: ");
document.write(fix(number1,number2));
</script>
</body>
</html>

Truck35 · December 20th, 2012, 05:26 PM

I used a "document.write" code to dislplay every varaible and instance varaible to see what was in them. I then was able to figure out what the person that wrote the code was doing. I had to do it this way because for some reason my debugger stoped working.

The code below is the code I was having problems with. I've added comments to explain what each block of code is doing in the function.

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>Chapter 5: Question 3</title>
    <script type="text/javascript">

/*function called "fix" is created to take two parameters called fixNumber and decimalPlaces*/

    function fix(fixNumber, decimalPlaces)
    {
/*pow method takes the value 10 and raises it to the number that is stored in the variable called decimalPlaces*/

        var div = Math.pow(10,decimalPlaces);

/*value stored in fixNumber variable is multiplied by value in div variable.  This number is then rounded using the round method and divided by the value in the div variable,  The number is then changed into a string object using the new String() syntax then stored in the variable called fixNumber.*/

        fixNumber = new String(Math.round(fixNumber * div) / div);

/*This "if" statement uses the "lastIndexOf" method to see if the period is in the string.  If the value returned is equale to -1(Meaning if the period is not found) a period is added to the string stored in the fixNumber Method*/

        if (fixNumber.lastIndexOf(".")==-1)
        {
            fixNumber = fixNumber + ".";
        }

/*  This takes the number of decimalPlaces given by the user minus the fixNumber's length minus the value returned by the "lastIndexOf" method minus one.  This number is then assigned to the zeroRequired varaible. */

        var zerosRequired = decimalPlaces - 
            (fixNumber.length - fixNumber.lastIndexOf(".") - 1);
            
/*This for loop checks to see if the number in zerosRequired is greater that 0.  If it is, it adds 0's to the fixNumber string varaible and decrements the number until  the zerosRequired value is no longer greater than zero.*/

        for (; zerosRequired > 0; zerosRequired--)
        {
            fixNumber = fixNumber + "0";
        }
/*Returns value when fixNumber function is called.
        return fixNumber;
    }
    </script>
</head>

Bless,
Truck35