Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Unary negation

The unary negation operator (-) precedes its operand and negates it.

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Syntax

Operator: -x

Examples

Negating numbers

const x = 3;
const y = -x;

// y = -3
// x = 3

Negating non-numbers

The unary negation operator can convert a non-number into a number.

const x = "4";
const y = -x;

// y = -4

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript (ECMA-262)The definition of 'Unary negation operator' in that specification.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile						Server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	Node.js
Unary negation (-)	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 3	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0	nodejs Full support 0.1.100

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See also

• Addition operator
• Subtraction operator
• Division operator
• Multiplication operator
• Remainder operator
• Exponentiation operator
• Increment operator
• Decrement operator
• Unary plus operator

Unary negation (-) by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.