How to add two strings as if they were numbers? [duplicate]

Question

I would use the unary plus operator to convert them to numbers first.

+num1 + +num2;

MDN docs for parseInt
MDN docs for parseFloat

In parseInt radix is specified as ten so that we are in base 10. In nonstrict javascript a number prepended with 0 is treated as octal. This would obviously cause problems!

parseInt(num1, 10) + parseInt(num2, 10) //base10
parseFloat(num1) + parseFloat(num2)

Also see ChaosPandion's answer for a useful shortcut using a unary operator. I have set up a fiddle to show the different behaviors.

http://jsfiddle.net/EtX6G/

var ten = '10';
var zero_ten = '010';
var one = '1';
var body = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];

Append(parseInt(ten) + parseInt(one));
Append(parseInt(zero_ten) + parseInt(one));
Append(+ten + +one);
Append(+zero_ten + +one);

function Append(text) {
    body.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text));
    body.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
}

I would recommend to use the unary plus operator, to force an eventual string to be treated as number, inside parenthesis to make the code more readable like the following:

(+varname)

So, in your case it's:

var num1 = '20',
    num2 = '30.5';

var sum = (+num1) + (+num2);

// Just to test it
console.log( sum ); // 50.5

var result = Number(num1) + Number(num2);

convert the strings to floats with parseFloat(string) or to integers with parseInt(string)

If you need to add two strings together which are very large numbers you'll need to evaluate the addition at every string position:

function addStrings(str1, str2){
  str1a = str1.split('').reverse();
  str2a = str2.split('').reverse();
  let output = '';
  let longer = Math.max(str1.length, str2.length);
  let carry = false;
  for (let i = 0; i < longer; i++) {
    let result
    if (str1a[i] && str2a[i]) {
      result = parseInt(str1a[i]) + parseInt(str2a[i]);

    } else if (str1a[i] && !str2a[i]) {
      result = parseInt(str1a[i]);

    } else if (!str1a[i] && str2a[i]) {
      result = parseInt(str2a[i]);
    }

    if (carry) {
        result += 1;
        carry = false;
    }
    if(result >= 10) {
      carry = true;
      output += result.toString()[1];
    }else {
      output += result.toString();
    }
  }
  output = output.split('').reverse().join('');

  if(carry) {
    output = '1' + output;
  }
  return output;
}

You can use this to add numbers:

var x = +num1 + +num2;