# \[as3\] When and How to use ints

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-when-and-how-to-use-ints/226073
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [May 17, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-when-and-how-to-use-ints/226073 "2007-05-17T23:16:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Rezmason](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/rezmason/32/30447_2.png) [@Rezmason](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Rezmason)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-when-and-how-to-use-ints/226073/1 "2007-05-17T23:16:33Z")

</div>

So AS3’s got the new int data type. No floating-point mantissa stuff to worry about, these are straight-up whole numbers, and that sounds great. But I keep hearing that using ints isn’t much faster and can sometimes be slower than using Numbers. (Say, shouldn’t it be Int with a capital I?) I hear that the ECMAScript standard has rules about the int data type, that ints have to be converted to Number whenever arithmetic is performed on them. On the other hand, I hear that ints make better indices when working with arrays, and that using the int() conversion (a Top Level function), integer arithmetic is improved for some reason. Maybe it’s a syntactical reason, I have no idea.

And that’s what I’m getting at: **I have no idea** what to make of ints. Could someone just spell it out for me, entirely, right here? What’s the story with ints?

…Dang. That should’ve been the thread title.