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javamathbigdecimalmathcontext

Use of java.math.MathContext

Recently I tried understanding the use of java.math.MathContext but failed to understand properly. Is it used for rounding in java.math.BigDecimal. If yes why does not it round the decimal digits but even mantissa part.

From API docs, I came to know that it follows the standard specified in ANSI X3.274-1996 and ANSI X3.274-1996/AM 1-2000 specifications but I did not get them to read online.

Please let me know if you have any idea on this.

Solution

  • @jatan

    Thanks for you answer. It makes sense. Can you please explain me MathContext in the context of BigDecimal#round method.

    There's nothing special about BigDecimal.round() vs. any other BigDecimal method. In all cases, the MathContext specifies the number of significant digits and the rounding technique. Basically, there are two parts of every MathContext. There's a precision, and there's also a RoundingMode.

    The precision again specifies the number of significant digits. So if you specify 123 as a number, and ask for 2 significant digits, you're going to get 120. It might be clearer if you think in terms of scientific notation.

    123 would be 1.23e2 in scientific notation. If you only keep 2 significant digits, then you get 1.2e2, or 120. By reducing the number of significant digits, we reduce the precision with which we can specify a number.

    The RoundingMode part specifies how we should handle the loss of precision. To reuse the example, if you use 123 as the number, and ask for 2 significant digits, you've reduced your precision. With a RoundingMode of HALF_UP (the default mode), 123 will become 120. With a RoundingMode of CEILING, you'll get 130.

    For example:

    System.out.println(new BigDecimal("123.4",
                   new MathContext(4,RoundingMode.HALF_UP)));
System.out.println(new BigDecimal("123.4",
                   new MathContext(2,RoundingMode.HALF_UP)));
System.out.println(new BigDecimal("123.4",
                   new MathContext(2,RoundingMode.CEILING)));
System.out.println(new BigDecimal("123.4",
                   new MathContext(1,RoundingMode.CEILING)));

    Outputs:

    123.4
1.2E+2
1.3E+2
2E+2

    You can see that both the precision and the rounding mode affect the output.