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scalabigdecimalzero

Why doesn't Scala's BigDecimal have a ZERO?

It's easy enough to create:

object zero extends BigDecimal(java.math.BigDecimal.ZERO)

I'm just wondering whether this was an oversight, or if there was a conscious decision to not add this and, if so, are there reasons why I should avoid the code above. Perhaps having to do with the MathContext?

Solution

  • I'd think it's because usually you don't need it. Whereas in Java you need to type something like

    BigDecimal b = new BigDecimal(1.23).add(BigDecimal.ZERO);

    in Scala, there are number conversions that mean you can write

    val b = BigDecimal(1.23) + 0

    You can also write it simply as BigDecimal(0). If you're instantiating that a lot you might want to cache it as a named value (as for any other number), but you won't normally need to, and I think it helps simplify the API if you remove special cases that you have to remember.