Second argument to parseFloat in JavaScript?

Here's a quickie version of parseFloat that does take a radix. It does NOT support scientific notation. Undefined behavior when given strings with digits outside the radix. Also behaves badly when given too many digits after the decimal point.

function parseFloatWithRadix(s, r) {
  r = (r||10)|0;
  const [b,a] = ((s||'0') + '.').split('.');
  const l1 = parseInt('1'+(a||''), r).toString(r).length;
  return parseInt(b, r) + 
    parseInt(a||'0', r) / parseInt('1' + Array(l1).join('0'), r);
}

parseFloatWithRadix('10.8', 16) gives 16.5

gist: https://gist.github.com/Hafthor/0a60f918d50113600d7c67252e68a02d

No, they're getting confused with parseInt(), which can take a radix parameter. parseFloat(), on the other hand, only accepts decimals. It might just be for consistency, as you should always pass a radix parameter to parseInt() because it can treat numbers like 010 as octal, giving 8 rather than the correct 10.

Here's the reference for parseFloat(), versus parseInt().