I Built a Unit Converter in Pure Vanilla JS — 7 Categories, 70+ Units, 165 Tests, Zero Dependencies

Unit converters are everywhere online, but they all seem to either require an account, run ads that cover half the screen, or send your input to a server for no reason. I built one that runs entirely in your browser, with no dependencies, no tracking, and no round-trips.

👉 https://unit-converter-dev.pages.dev

What It Does

Seven conversion categories, 70+ units, real-time bidirectional conversion:

Category Example units Length mm, cm, m, km, in, ft, yd, mi, nmi, light-year Weight mg, g, kg, t, oz, lb, st, short ton Temperature °C, °F, K, °R Volume ml, l, m³, fl oz, cup, pint, quart, gallon, tbsp, tsp Area mm², cm², m², km², ha, acre, ft², in², mi², yd² Speed m/s, km/h, mph, ft/s, knot, Mach Data bit, byte, KB/KiB, MB/MiB, GB/GiB, TB — both SI and binary

Features:

• Bidirectional — type in either field, the other updates instantly
• Swap button — flip from/to with one click
• All-units panel — see your input converted to every unit in the category simultaneously
• Formula display — shows the conversion factor (e.g. “1 Mile = 1.609344 Kilometer”)
• Zero dependencies — single HTML file, no build step, no npm

Implementation Notes

Linear vs. non-linear conversions

Most unit conversions are linear: multiply by a factor to get to the base unit, divide by another factor to get to the target. The approach:

function convert(catKey, fromUnit, toUnit, value) {
  const base = toBase(catKey, fromUnit, value);     // → base unit
  return fromBase(catKey, toUnit, base);            // base unit → target
}

function toBase(catKey, unit, value) {
  const u = CATEGORIES[catKey].units[unit];
  if (u.toBase) return u.toBase(value);             // non-linear (temperature)
  return value * u.factor;
}

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Temperature is the classic non-linear case. You can’t just multiply to convert between Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin — you need offset arithmetic:

temperature: {
  units: {
    C: {
      toBase:   v => v + 273.15,               // °C → K
      fromBase: v => v - 273.15,               // K → °C
    },
    F: {
      toBase:   v => (v - 32) * 5/9 + 273.15, // °F → K
      fromBase: v => (v - 273.15) * 9/5 + 32, // K → °F
    },
    K: { toBase: v => v, fromBase: v => v },
    R: { toBase: v => v * 5/9, fromBase: v => v * 9/5 },
  }
}

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SI vs. binary data units

The data category includes both SI prefixes (1 KB = 1000 bytes) and binary prefixes (1 KiB = 1024 bytes). Both are represented with the same factor-based approach, just stored as separate units:

data: {
  units: {
    kB:  { factor: 8e3     },  // Kilobyte  = 8000 bits
    kiB: { factor: 8192    },  // Kibibyte  = 8192 bits (= 8 × 1024)
    mB:  { factor: 8e6     },  // Megabyte  = 8,000,000 bits
    miB: { factor: 8388608 },  // Mebibyte  = 8,388,608 bits (= 8 × 1024²)
    // ...
  }
}

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Number formatting

The tricky part is displaying results cleanly. 1.6093440000000001 is ugly; 1.609344 is what you want. toPrecision(10) then parseFloat removes trailing zeros while keeping enough precision:

function formatNum(n) {
  if (!isFinite(n)) return '';
  if (n === 0) return '0';
  const abs = Math.abs(n);
  if (abs >= 1e-3 && abs < 1e13) {
    return parseFloat(n.toPrecision(10)).toString();
  }
  return n.toExponential(6);  // very large or very small → scientific notation
}

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Testing

165 tests, all passing, using only Node.js assert:

§1  Length conversions         (17 tests)
§2  Weight conversions         (12 tests)
§3  Temperature conversions    (13 tests)
§4  Volume conversions         (11 tests)
§5  Area conversions           (10 tests)
§6  Speed conversions          ( 9 tests)
§7  Data conversions           (12 tests)
§8  formatNum                  (15 tests)
§9  convert edge cases         ( 8 tests)
§10 Roundtrip conversions      (13 tests)
§11 Category structure         (12 tests)
§12 Known reference values     (13 tests)
§13 Additional coverage        (20 tests)

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Highlights from the test suite:

• -40°C = -40°F (the only point where Celsius and Fahrenheit are equal)
• 0 K = -459.67°F (absolute zero)
• 1 mi = 5280 ft = 1760 yd = 1.609344 km
• 1 GiB = 1024 MiB = 8589934592 bits
• Roundtrip tests: convert A→B→A and verify you get A back (within floating-point tolerance)

Try It

👉 https://unit-converter-dev.pages.dev

Part of devnestio — a collection of free, zero-dependency developer tools that run entirely in your browser.