This is one way to do it
Use type="number"
inputs and radio buttons to choose the operation. That helps the person to enter numbers. You can also use type="text"
The important part is the conversion from string data into numeric values
When you read data from the value property of an input, the data is returned as a string. It can be converted to a number using parseInt
(for integers) or parseFloat
(for floating point). If it can't be parsed, NaN
(Not a Number) is returned. To test for NaN
, use isNaN()
.
For example:
let x = "kittens";
let n = parseInt(x);
if (isNaN(n)) {
console.log(x + " is not a number");
}
The important part of this example is the conversion of numbers and figuring out which operation to perform.
// get the elements in the DOM
let numberOne = document.getElementById("numberOne");
let numberTwo = document.getElementById("numberTwo");
let output = document.getElementById("output");
let calculator = document.getElementById("calculator");
// every time the calculator values change
calculator.addEventListener('change', function(evt) {
// get the values from the number inputs and try to convert them to floating point
let valueOne = parseFloat(numberOne.value);
let valueTwo = parseFloat(numberTwo.value);
// if both numbers are numbers (this is not 100% accurate)
if (!isNaN(valueOne) && !isNaN(valueTwo)) {
// create a variable to store the result
let value = 0;
// get the radio buttons
let ops = calculator['operation'];
// use the selected radio button to determine the operation
switch (ops.value) {
case '+':
value = valueOne + valueTwo;
break;
case '-':
value = valueOne - valueTwo;
}
// display the result
output.textContent = value;
}
});
<form id="calculator">
<!-- first number -->
<input id="numberOne" type="number" placeholder="1.0" step="0.01" min="0" max="10">
<br>
<!-- radio buttons for operations -->
<label for="add">Add
<input type="radio" name="operation" value="+">
</label>
<label for="subtract">Subtract
<input type="radio" name="operation" value="-">
</label>
<br>
<!-- second number -->
<input id="numberTwo" type="number" placeholder="1.0" step="0.01" min="0" max="10">
</form>
<!-- to display the result -->
<output id="output"></output>