In chapter 3 (40p), discussion of parseInt() function, the book reads like following:

//56 (octal) in ECMAScript 3, 0 (decimal) in ECMAScript 5
var num = parseInt("070");


I tried this in my firefox browser, like following:

<script type="text/javascript">
"use strict";

var a = parseInt("070");
console.log(a); // 56
</script>


I can' sure this is error or common quirks, or maybe I don' know something important. If I'm wrong, how can I force the browser to use ECMA 5?

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and the succeeding description, the book reads like this:

In ECMAScript 5 JavaScript engines, the ability to parse octal values has been removed from parseInt() so the leading zero is considered invalid and the value is treated the same as “0”, resulting in the decimal value 0.

What I don' understand is that, if the engine removed octal conversion, then shouldn' it convert the literal as if it were decimal, so that parseInt("070") should return "70"?. I think that makes sense.

so.. I hope some clearer discussion so I understand why parseInt('070') in ECMA 5 should return "0".

I tried this in Chrome 23.0.1271.95 and IE 10 and got 70 in both. (with & without "use strict")

What version of FF were you using?

I contacted the author about this and this was his response:

'Yup, that is a typo. In ECMAScript 5, "070" is treated the same as "70".

There is an errata page on the Wrox site, but for some reason they've not been updating it. I've contacted them several times asking when it will be updated, and the only response I've received is, "soon". I apologize for this, I know that can be incredibly frustrating as a reader (it's also very frustrating as an author). I'll ping them again today.'