Pretty-print number of bytes
JavaScript, String, Math · Oct 22, 2020

Converts a number in bytes to a human-readable string.
- Use an array dictionary of units to be accessed based on the exponent.
- Use
Number.prototype.toPrecision()
to truncate the number to a certain number of digits. - Return the prettified string by building it up, taking into account the supplied options and whether it is negative or not.
- Omit the second argument,
precision
, to use a default precision of3
digits. - Omit the third argument,
addSpace
, to add space between the number and unit by default.
const prettyBytes = (num, precision = 3, addSpace = true) => { const UNITS = ['B', 'KB', 'MB', 'GB', 'TB', 'PB', 'EB', 'ZB', 'YB']; if (Math.abs(num) < 1) return num + (addSpace ? ' ' : '') + UNITS[0]; const exponent = Math.min( Math.floor(Math.log10(num < 0 ? -num : num) / 3), UNITS.length - 1 ); const n = Number( ((num < 0 ? -num : num) / 1000 ** exponent).toPrecision(precision) ); return (num < 0 ? '-' : '') + n + (addSpace ? ' ' : '') + UNITS[exponent]; }; prettyBytes(1000); // '1 KB' prettyBytes(-27145424323.5821, 5); // '-27.145 GB' prettyBytes(123456789, 3, false); // '123MB'