### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 12:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/1 "2021-03-18T12:51:33Z")
Hello everybody, thanks about this forum, it's a nice node red encyclopedia 😉
Generaly, i understand what i do, i can pass 1min, 1hour, 1days and more when i meet a problem but now, madness begins ...
Consider this function. I receive from my IoT an ASCII message like this : `"02h05m3h"`.
I juste want to convert this ascii chain to 3 numbers in an array, using `parseFloat()` function.
```auto
var o;
var raw = {};
var ascii = {};
var splited;
o = msg.payload;
//test if there is valid raw data
if(o[0] === 2) //is a conf rawdata
{
raw.topic = "RAM";
raw.enabled = false; //Disable button
raw.payload = msg.payload;
return [raw,null];
}
else if(o[0] < 1 || 2 < o[0]) //is a ascii data ?
{
ascii.topic = "RAM";
ascii.enabled = false; //Disable button
ascii.payload = msg.payload;[/code]
splited = String(o); //toString
splited = splited.replace(/[a-z]/g,":");// replace all lowercase to ':'
splited = splited.split(":"); // Split
for(var i=0; i
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 13:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/2 "2021-03-18T13:16:48Z")
Another approach would be to use Date.parse like this: [Parse Time HH:mm:ss without date in javascript](https://techstream.org/Bits/Javascript/Javascript-Parse-time)
Edit: this function seems to work:
```auto
var regex_tx = /(\d*)h(\d*)m(\d*)h/;
const m = msg.payload.match(regex_tx);
var res = [];
for (var n = 1; n < m.length; n++) {
res.push(Number(m[n]));
}
msg.payload = res
return msg;
```
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 13:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/3 "2021-03-18T13:30:56Z")
Thank you for you answer. The problem is, i can receive negative ascii value like `"-2"`, and i understand that only parseFloat() can do this convertion.
I add that i've tried also with parseInt() and Number(), it return me the same NaN at the same position 🤔
Ok i just post without seen your code 😄
---
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 13:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/4 "2021-03-18T13:46:13Z")
Then you adjust your regexp like
```auto
var regex_tx = /(-*\d*)h(-*\d*)m(-*\d*)h/;
```
It doesn't matter whether you use Number() or parseFloat(), it gives you the "-2"
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 14:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/5 "2021-03-18T14:05:17Z")
Ok i tested you code. Below 😄
```auto
var o;
var raw = {};
var ascii = {};
o = msg.payload;
/* test if there is valid raw data */
if(o[0] === 2) //is a conf rawdata
{
raw.topic = "RAM";
raw.enabled = false; //Disable button
raw.payload = msg.payload;
return [raw,null];
}
else if(o[0] < 1 || 2 < o[0]) //is a ascii data ?
{
ascii.topic = "RAM";
ascii.enabled = false; //Disable button
ascii.payload = msg.payload;
//splited = String(o);
var regex_tx = /(\d*)h(\d*)m(\d*)h/;
const m = msg.payload.match(regex_tx);
var res = [];
for (var n = 1; n < m.length; n++)
{
res.push(Number(m));
}
msg.payload = res
return [null,msg];
}
```
I have this error :
```auto
TypeError: msg.payload.match is not a function
```
I think i must to String() before, but where ?
---
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 14:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/6 "2021-03-18T14:11:18Z")
Almost my code, there is the index missing in the loop 😉
Instead of msg.payload you have to use your string. In my case the string was directly in msg.payload, because I used an inject node. Maybe replace
```auto
const m = msg.payload.match(regex_tx);
```
with
```auto
var SomeString = String(o);
const m = SomeString match(regex_tx);
```
But that's just a guess. Please feed your input in the debug node and show what it says
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 14:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/7 "2021-03-18T14:30:43Z")
😵
Well, here is the input (from my device) :
```auto
buffer[10][string]
03h10m 5h
```
or
```auto
msg.payload : buffer[10]
[48, 51, 104, 49, 48, 109, 0, 0, 53, 104]
```
You can see 2 spaces ... i will to fix it now.
The fonction node code now is :
```auto
var o;
var raw = {};
var ascii = {};
o = msg.payload;
/* test if there is valid raw data */
if(o[0] === 2) //is a conf rawdata
{
raw.topic = "RAM";
raw.enabled = false; //Disable button
raw.payload = msg.payload;
return [raw,null];
}
else if(o[0] < 1 || 2 < o[0]) //is a ascii data ?
{
ascii.topic = "RAM";
ascii.enabled = false; //Disable button
ascii.payload = msg.payload;
var regex_tx = /(\d*)h(\d*)m(\d*)h/;
var SomeString = String(o);
const m = SomeString.match(regex_tx);
var res = [];
for (var n = 1; n < m.length; n++)
{
res.push(Number(m[n]));
}
msg.payload = res
return [null,msg];
}
```
And i have this error at the output :
```auto
TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of null
```
now i am completely lost
---
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 14:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/8 "2021-03-18T14:54:14Z")
First thing: it's a buffer, use
```auto
var SomeString = o.toString();
```
Second thing: if you have spaces in the string, your regexp should be
```auto
/\s*(-*\d*)h\s*(-*\d*)m\s*(-*\d*)h/;
```
Regexps are a wonderful thing 😁
Edit: why do you parse for floats if you apparently only have ints?
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 15:26 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/9 "2021-03-18T15:26:35Z")
Ok i'm trying that.
I used parseFloat because understood that only this function convert for example `"-10"`
But if Number do that !
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 15:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/10 "2021-03-18T15:34:23Z")
> [@corso66](#):
>
> `TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of null`
Ok i have change te code as you told me, i have always this error of type. Why length is a problem now ?
Also have deleted bad space from my device...
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 15:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/11 "2021-03-18T15:55:00Z")
> [@corso66](#):
>
> `for (var n = 1; n < m.length; n++)`
Assuming that it is that line that generating the error then it means that `m` is null.
Read the node-red docs page on Writing Functions and it will tell you how you can use `node-warn` to display values from within your function. You can add `node.warn()` statements at appropriate points to see what is going on.
---
### Author:  [@Simon01011](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Simon01011)
#### Post date: [18 March 2021 22:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/12 "2021-03-18T22:06:23Z")
As Colin said:
> [@Colin](#):
>
> Read the node-red docs page on Writing Functions and it will tell you how you can use `node-warn` to display values from within your function. You can add `node.warn()` statements at appropriate points to see what is going on.
Something with your string that you are trying to "match" is wrong, so there is no match and the array m is null. So output the string before the match and see what's wrong
---
### Author:  [@corso66](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/corso66)
#### Post date: [19 March 2021 09:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/13 "2021-03-19T09:27:45Z")
Hi!
Yesterday i have undersatnd the problem, thanks Simon01011 to shown me the way.
My electronics card send some data to red node, some time in ASCII or RAW data. I have designed a "terminal" to display commands sent or received with a text node. But, spaces characters sent by my IoT are ignored, because those value is 0x00 (not really a space char).
So by looking the input data, i've seen that IoT sent, for example if an ascii number `1` to send (has not hundred or ten), `001`. Or another like `-1` will viewed in debug node as `- 1`.
So, Number() can't process this last one and return un NaN. Same with parseFloat().
I keep preciously you code but it's more hard for me. So i have retryed my first code above, i have modified my firmware of my IoT and deleted excess 0x00 chars, and everythings is ok.
Thank you very much everybody 😄
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [2 April 2021 09:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parsefloat-return-as-it-want-value-and-nan/42815/14 "2021-04-02T09:28:03Z")
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