ee.Number.toUint8

  • Number.toUint8() casts a number to an unsigned 8-bit integer with a range of 0 to 255.

  • Casting a floating point number to uint8 results in the loss of decimal precision.

  • Numbers outside the uint8 range become the nearest bound of the range (0 for less than min, 255 for greater than max) when cast to uint8.

 Casts the input value to an unsigned 8-bit integer.

UsageReturns
Number.toUint8()Number
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: inputNumberThe input value.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Cast a number to unsigned 8-bit integer: [0, 255].
var number = ee.Number(100);
print('Number:', number);

var uint8Number = number.toUint8();
print('Number cast to uint8:', uint8Number);


/**
 * Casting numbers to uint8 that are outside of its range and precision can
 * modify the resulting value, note the behavior of the following scenarios.
 */

// A floating point number cast to uint8 loses decimal precision.
var float = ee.Number(1.7);
print('Floating point value:', float);

var floatToUint8 = float.toUint8();
print('Floating point value cast to uint8:', floatToUint8);

// A number greater than uint8 range max cast to uint8 becomes uint8 range max.
var UINT8_MAX = 255;
var outOfRangeHi = ee.Number(UINT8_MAX + 12345);
print('Greater than uint8 max:', outOfRangeHi);

var outOfRangeHiToUint8 = outOfRangeHi.toUint8();
print('Greater than uint8 max cast to uint8 becomes uint8 max:', outOfRangeHiToUint8);

// A number greater than uint8 range min cast to uint8 becomes uint8 range min.
var UINT8_MIN = 0;
var outOfRangeLo = ee.Number(UINT8_MIN - 12345);
print('Less than uint8 min:', outOfRangeLo);

var outOfRangeLoToUint8 = outOfRangeLo.toUint8();
print('Less than uint8 min cast to uint8 becomes uint8 min:', outOfRangeLoToUint8);

Python setup

See the Python Environment page for information on the Python API and using geemap for interactive development.

import ee
import geemap.core as geemap

Colab (Python)

# Cast a number to unsigned 8-bit integer: [0, 255].
number = ee.Number(100)
print('Number:', number.getInfo())

uint8_number = number.toUint8()
print('Number cast to uint8:', uint8_number.getInfo())


"""Casting numbers to uint8 that are outside of its range and precision can
modify the resulting value, note the behavior of the following scenarios.
"""

# A floating point number cast to uint8 loses decimal precision.
float_number = ee.Number(1.7)
print('Floating point value:', float_number.getInfo())

float_to_uint8 = float_number.toUint8()
print('Floating point value cast to uint8:', float_to_uint8.getInfo())

# A number greater than uint8 range max cast to uint8 becomes uint8 range max.
UINT8_MAX = 255
out_of_range_hi = ee.Number(UINT8_MAX + 12345)
print('Greater than uint8 max:', out_of_range_hi.getInfo())

out_of_range_hi_to_uint8 = out_of_range_hi.toUint8()
print('Greater than uint8 max cast to uint8 becomes uint8 max:',
      out_of_range_hi_to_uint8.getInfo())

# A number greater than uint8 range min cast to uint8 becomes uint8 range min.
UINT8_MIN = 0
out_of_range_lo = ee.Number(UINT8_MIN - 12345)
print('Less than uint8 min:', out_of_range_lo.getInfo())

out_of_range_lo_to_uint8 = out_of_range_lo.toUint8()
print('Less than uint8 min cast to uint8 becomes uint8 min:',
      out_of_range_lo_to_uint8.getInfo())