What's the most elegant way to cap a number to a segment?

The way you do it is pretty standard. You can define a utility clamp function:

/**
 * Returns a number whose value is limited to the given range.
 *
 * Example: limit the output of this computation to between 0 and 255
 * (x * 255).clamp(0, 255)
 *
 * @param {Number} min The lower boundary of the output range
 * @param {Number} max The upper boundary of the output range
 * @returns A number in the range [min, max]
 * @type Number
 */
Number.prototype.clamp = function(min, max) {
  return Math.min(Math.max(this, min), max);
};

(Although extending language built-ins is generally frowned upon)


a less "Math" oriented approach ,but should also work , this way, the < / > test is exposed (maybe more understandable than minimaxing) but it really depends on what you mean by "readable"

function clamp(num, min, max) {
  return num <= min ? min : num >= max ? max : num;
}

Update for ECMAScript 2017:

Math.clamp(x, lower, upper)

But note that as of today, it's a Stage 1 proposal. Until it gets widely supported, you can use a polyfill.