javaoperator-keywordbigdecimal

How to use comparison operators like >, =, < on BigDecimal


I have a domain class with unitPrice set as BigDecimal data type. Now I am trying to create a method to compare price but it seems like I can't have comparison operators in BigDecimal data type. Do I have to change data type or is there other way around?


Solution

  • Every object of the Class BigDecimal has a method compareTo you can use to compare it to another BigDecimal. The result of compareTo is then compared > 0, == 0 or < 0 depending on what you need. Read the documentation and you will find out.

    The operators ==, <, > and so on can only be used on primitive data types like int, long, double or their wrapper classes like Integerand Double.

    From the documentation of compareTo:

    Compares this BigDecimal with the specified BigDecimal.

    Two BigDecimal objects that are equal in value but have a different scale (like 2.0 and 2.00) are considered equal by this method. This method is provided in preference to individual methods for each of the six boolean comparison operators (<, ==, >, >=, !=, <=). The suggested idiom for performing these comparisons is: (x.compareTo(y) <op> 0), where <op> is one of the six comparison operators.

    Returns: -1, 0, or 1 as this BigDecimal is numerically less than, equal to, or greater than val.