Calculate sum of digits from a given number using String's slice method

Question

This is the "classic" algorithm for calculating the sum of digits uses the modulo-operator together with the division-operator. I had the idea of using the slice-method with a negative index for accomplishing the task.

/**
 * Calculates sum of digits from a given number.
 * @param { number } num
 * @return { number }
 * @throws { exception } Throws exception in
 *   case given parameter is not a number.
 * Usage example:
 *   var CheckSum = calcCheckSum(328); // Returns 13
 */
function calcCheckSum(num) {
  var ret = 0;
  var i;

  if (typeof num != 'number' || isNaN(num)) {
    throw new Error('Number expected. { ' +
      typeof num + ' } ' +
      num + ' found.');
  }

  num = num.toString();

  for (i = num.length; i > 0; i--) {
    ret += parseInt(num.slice(i - 1, i));
  }

  return ret;
}

// -- TESTS -----------
for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  var randomNumber =
    Math.floor(
      Math.random() * (100000 - 100)
    ) + 100;

  var spacer = new Array(6);
  
  spacer = spacer.join(' ');

  console.log('%s : %s => %s',
               ('0' + i).slice(-2),
               (spacer + randomNumber).slice(-5),
               calcCheckSum(randomNumber)
  );
}

try {
  console.log(calcCheckSum('abcdef'));
} catch (e) {
  console.error(e);
}

try {
  console.log(calcCheckSum(NaN));
} catch (e) {
  console.error(e);
}
// ------------------------------

It seems to work as expected. Nevertheless I would appreciate your opinions: shall I stay with the well-known algorithm or I can use my self-figured out solution?

Moreover, is my parameter validation and my documentation done well? Or do I have to improve something?

Answer 1

Poor testing and vetting

There are a few problems with your approch.

• Throwing an error seems to me to be the incorrect response. If the argument it not a number then the result should be NaN. Saves you having to wrap the function in a try catch which will basically stop the javascript engine from optimising the code.

• Slice is a little over kill. You can use direct indexing str[index] or via str.charAt(index).

• You had parseInt, which will remove any numbers after the decimal point. Use type coercion +num to convert from string to number and ""+num to convert to string.

• You don't vet for exponent notation 123e-20

• You don't vet - out of the number string and +,or .

• And your testing is very poor.

Rewrite

Below is a rewrite. It fails one test calcCheckSum("0006") should return NaN but it does not which means that isNaN("0006") is failing. This was a surprise to me and I can not make a decision on what to do untill I work out the extent of this bug.

 function calcCheckSum (num) {
    var ret, i;
    if (isNaN(num) || num === "") { // Could be a string that is a number. No need to check if its a type number
                                    // Why throw this will stop the whole program. Return a value that reflects the input
        return NaN;
    }
    // what about negatives,pluses, decimal points, exponent notation, fractions????
    num = (""+num).replace(/\+|\-|\./g,""); // remove junk if any
    if(num.indexOf("e") > -1){  // if exponent then remove it
        num = num.split("e")[0];
    }
    
    ret = 0;
    for (i = 0; i < num.length; i ++) {  // simpler as no need to -1 each iteration
        ret += +num[i];  // + does the type conversion. Split is expensive so just lookup char by index
    }
    return ret;
}

// -- TESTS -----------
var fails = [];
var valuesToReturnNAN = [NaN,"0006","a","0xff","","+",".","-","-0-","-.38.",true,false,Infinity,-Infinity];
var valuesToReturn6 = [123,6,1.23e20,1.23e-20,111111,"123","6","+6","-6","-.6","111111","111.111",".123",.123,0.123,123.,-123,-.123,+123.,+123.0,-123.0,0.123,"0.12300"];
valuesToReturnNAN.forEach(v=>{
    if( ! isNaN(calcCheckSum(v)) ){
        fails.push("failed : " +(typeof v) + " : (" + v + ") did not return NaN");
    }
});
valuesToReturn6.forEach(v=>{
    if( calcCheckSum(v) !== 6 ){
        fails.push("failed : " +(typeof v) + " : (" + v + ") did not return 6");
    }
});
console.log("Failed "+fails.length + " tests.");
fails.forEach(str=>console.log(str));