Subtraction assignment (-=) - JavaScript | MDN

Try it

let a = 2;

console.log((a -= 3));
// Expected output: -1

console.log((a -= "Hello"));
// Expected output: NaN

Syntax

Description

x -= y is equivalent to x = x - y, except that the expression x is only evaluated once.

Examples

Subtraction assignment using numbers

js

let bar = 5;

bar -= 2; // 3

Other non-BigInt values are coerced to numbers:

Subtraction assignment using BigInts

js

let foo = 3n;
foo -= 2n; // 1n
foo -= 1; // TypeError: Cannot mix BigInt and other types, use explicit conversions

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript® 2027 Language Specification
# sec-assignment-operators

Browser compatibility

See also

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