What are NaN miles?

The Pippem

What are NaN miles? – What does NaN miles mean?

Funny, General, Technology

A brief summary of this post:

“NaN miles” stands for “Not a Number,” a term encountered in digital systems when a numerical value is expected but not provided or is invalid. In the context of online car listings, it appears when the mileage field is incorrectly entered, prompting the system to display “NaN miles” instead of a numerical value. This acronym is common in the coding world and can occur in various digital contexts, such as when ‘from’ and ‘destination’ locations are the same in a geo-location system, resulting in “NaN miles” instead of zero.

The “nan” part of NaN miles is an acronym and means “Not a Number”.

The Backstory – After browsing Facebook recently when looking for a second-hand car, I came across the curious term ‘NaN miles’ for the vehicle’s mileage but didn’t have a clue what it meant. The thought flitted through my mind to contact the seller and ask them directly but, at the risk of appearing to be a dimwit, I decided not to and just to research it quickly online. Surely it would pop up right there at the top of the search results and it would be job done. With this flawless logic, I thought, the easiest solution would simply be to either choose the search query “what are nan miles” or the other obvious alternative “what do nan miles mean”.

Although I thought ‘Nan’ may be an acronym, I couldn’t figure out what it meant simply by guessing so thought perhaps that it might be something a little more obvious. Now, in the UK, a “nan” is a colloquial term for a grandmother so I reasoned that Nan miles might mean that the car had been driven very carefully and slowly since many older people don’t tend to fit the typical “boy racer” profile. A boy racer btw is another slang term for a younger person who likes to drives fast and furiously. Therefore nan miles would surely mean the same as ‘carefully driven’.

Of course not… what on earth was I thinking?!

Is zero a number or not?

The actual meaning of NaN miles – Not a Number

Surprisingly, it took a bit of hunting online before I tracked down the actual answer. The “nan” part of NaN miles is an acronym and stands for Not a Number. With this in mind, why would anyone advertise their car with NaN as the mileage? Upon further investigation, it turns out that if you don’t enter the mileage correctly, Facebook returns NaN (not a number) in the listing, telling the advertiser there’s been a typo. This clearly leaves the rest of us scratching our heads wondering what on earth it could mean.

NaN is already a geeky acronym

If you look at this forum post, you’ll see a similar question posted by someone who came across Nan miles in the geo-location sense. When the ‘from’ and ‘destination’ locations were the same, he/she also came across NaN miles as the result, rather than a big fat zero. Again, NaN is used in the world of coding as Not a Number as well. Similarly, you’ll find the same question being asked on the Fitbit forum.

Anyway, so now you know and you’re no longer a dimwit like me.

17 thoughts on “What are NaN miles? – What does NaN miles mean?”

  1. I figured it was Not A Nough, indicating it hadn’t been driven for enough miles, and you could drive it for a few more.

    Reply
  2. I don’t get it.
    Sure I understand the acronym but then question why people don’t disclose mileage ir provide some sort of approximation.
    Otherwise it appears as though they’re hiding something

    Reply
    • No idea why someone selling a road car wouldn’t enter mileage (NAN miles or kilometres). I’d be extremely sceptical of such a listing. But where I see it most is for race cars. Most cars built for the track don’t have an odometer and their usage tends to be measured by hours on the engine, transmission, and maybe chassis. Makes sense in this context since someone selling a competition race car normally won’t have any clue how many miles are on it.

      Reply
    • No idea why someone selling a road car wouldn’t enter mileage. I’d be extremely skeptical of such a listing. But where I see it most is for race cars. Most cars built for the track don’t have an odometer and their usage tends to be measured by hours on the engine, transmission, and maybe chassis. Makes sense in this context since someone selling a competition race car normally won’t have any clue how many miles are on it.

      Reply
    • It’s for things that do not show mileage. For instants like a boat. Of selling a boat I don’t believe it with your mileage so you would enter NAN for mileage.

      Reply
  3. Thank you, you’ve solved a mystery for me and also really make me laugh with your theory about it being driven slowly and carefully like a nan 😆

    Reply
  4. When referencing vehicles in some cases “NaN” also means “Not actual number”. Perhaps the engine has been replaced, or the odometer no longer works correctly.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Share This