Using BigDecimal to work with currencies

I was trying to make my own class for currencies using longs, but apparently I should use BigDecimal instead. Could someone help me get started? What would be the best way to use BigDecimals for dollar currencies, like making it at least but no more than 2 decimal places for the cents, etc. The API for BigDecimal is huge, and I don't know which methods to use. Also, BigDecimal has better precision, but isn't that all lost if it passes through a double? if I do new BigDecimal(24.99), how will it be different than using a double? Or should I use the constructor that uses a String instead?

Here are a few hints:

1. Use BigDecimal for computations if you need the precision that it offers (Money values often need this).
2. Use the NumberFormat class for display. This class will take care of localization issues for amounts in different currencies. However, it will take in only primitives; therefore, if you can accept the small change in accuracy due to transformation to a double, you could use this class.
3. When using the NumberFormat class, use the scale() method on the BigDecimal instance to set the precision and the rounding method.

PS: In case you were wondering, BigDecimal is always better than double, when you have to represent money values in Java.

PPS:

Creating BigDecimal instances

This is fairly simple since BigDecimal provides constructors to take in primitive values, and String objects. You could use those, preferably the one taking the String object. For example,

BigDecimal modelVal = new BigDecimal("24.455");
BigDecimal displayVal = modelVal.setScale(2, RoundingMode.HALF_EVEN);

Displaying BigDecimal instances

You could use the setMinimumFractionDigits and setMaximumFractionDigits method calls to restrict the amount of data being displayed.

NumberFormat usdCostFormat = NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.US);
usdCostFormat.setMinimumFractionDigits( 1 );
usdCostFormat.setMaximumFractionDigits( 2 );
System.out.println( usdCostFormat.format(displayVal.doubleValue()) );

I would recommend a little research on Money Pattern. Martin Fowler in his book Analysis pattern has covered this in more detail.

public class Money {

    private static final Currency USD = Currency.getInstance("USD");
    private static final RoundingMode DEFAULT_ROUNDING = RoundingMode.HALF_EVEN;
    
    private final BigDecimal amount;
    private final Currency currency;   

    public static Money dollars(BigDecimal amount) {
        return new Money(amount, USD);
    }

    Money(BigDecimal amount, Currency currency) {
        this(amount, currency, DEFAULT_ROUNDING);
    }
    
    Money(BigDecimal amount, Currency currency, RoundingMode rounding) {
        this.currency = currency;      
        this.amount = amount.setScale(currency.getDefaultFractionDigits(), rounding);
    }
    
    public BigDecimal getAmount() {
        return amount;
    }

    public Currency getCurrency() {
        return currency;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return getCurrency().getSymbol() + " " + getAmount();
    }
    
    public String toString(Locale locale) {
        return getCurrency().getSymbol(locale) + " " + getAmount();
    }   
}

Coming to the usage:

You would represent all monies using Money object as opposed to BigDecimal. Representing money as big decimal will mean that you will have the to format the money every where you display it. Just imagine if the display standard changes. You will have to make the edits all over the place. Instead using the Money pattern you centralize the formatting of money to a single location.

Money price = Money.dollars(38.28);
System.out.println(price);

Or, wait for JSR-354. Java Money and Currency API coming soon!

1. If you are limited to the double precision, one reason to use BigDecimals is to realize operations with the BigDecimals created from the doubles.

2. The BigDecimal consists of an arbitrary precision integer unscaled value and a non-negative 32-bit integer scale, while the double wraps a value of the primitive type double in an object. An object of type Double contains a single field whose type is double

3. It should make no difference

You should have no difficulties with the $ and precision. One way to do it is using System.out.printf

Use BigDecimal.setScale(2, BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP) when you want to round up to the 2 decimal points for cents. Be aware of rounding off error when you do calculations though. You need to be consistent when you will be doing the rounding of money value. Either do the rounding right at the end just once after all calculations are done, or apply rounding to each value before doing any calculations. Which one to use would depend on your business requirement, but generally, I think doing rounding right at the end seems to make a better sense to me.

Use a String when you construct BigDecimal for money value. If you use double, it will have a trailing floating point values at the end. This is due to computer architecture regarding how double/float values are represented in binary format.

Primitive numeric types are useful for storing single values in memory. But when dealing with calculation using double and float types, there is a problems with the rounding.It happens because memory representation doesn't map exactly to the value. For example, a double value is supposed to take 64 bits but Java doesn't use all 64 bits.It only stores what it thinks the important parts of the number. So you can arrive to the wrong values when you adding values together of the float or double type.

Please see a short clip https://youtu.be/EXxUSz9x7BM

There is an extensive example of how to do this on javapractices.com. See in particular the Money class, which is meant to make monetary calculations simpler than using BigDecimal directly.

The design of this Money class is intended to make expressions more natural. For example:

if ( amount.lt(hundred) ) {
 cost = amount.times(price); 
}

The WEB4J tool has a similar class, called Decimal, which is a bit more polished than the Money class.

NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(java.util.Locale.US).format(num);

I would be radical. No BigDecimal.

Here is a great article https://lemnik.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/bigdecimal-and-your-money/

Ideas from here.

import java.math.BigDecimal;

public class Main {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		testConstructors();
		testEqualsAndCompare();
		testArithmetic();
	}

	private static void testEqualsAndCompare() {
		final BigDecimal zero = new BigDecimal("0.0");
		final BigDecimal zerozero = new BigDecimal("0.00");

		boolean zerosAreEqual = zero.equals(zerozero);
		boolean zerosAreEqual2 = zerozero.equals(zero);

		System.out.println("zerosAreEqual: " + zerosAreEqual + " " + zerosAreEqual2);

		int zerosCompare = zero.compareTo(zerozero);
		int zerosCompare2 = zerozero.compareTo(zero);
		System.out.println("zerosCompare: " + zerosCompare + " " + zerosCompare2);
	}

	private static void testArithmetic() {
		try {
			BigDecimal value = new BigDecimal(1);
			value = value.divide(new BigDecimal(3));
			System.out.println(value);
		} catch (ArithmeticException e) {
			System.out.println("Failed to devide. " + e.getMessage());
		}
	}

	private static void testConstructors() {
		double doubleValue = 35.7;
		BigDecimal fromDouble = new BigDecimal(doubleValue);
		BigDecimal fromString = new BigDecimal("35.7");

		boolean decimalsEqual = fromDouble.equals(fromString);
		boolean decimalsEqual2 = fromString.equals(fromDouble);

		System.out.println("From double: " + fromDouble);
		System.out.println("decimalsEqual: " + decimalsEqual + " " + decimalsEqual2);
	}
}

It prints

From double: 35.7000000000000028421709430404007434844970703125
decimalsEqual: false false
zerosAreEqual: false false
zerosCompare: 0 0
Failed to devide. Non-terminating decimal expansion; no exact representable decimal result.

How about storing BigDecimal into a database? Hell, it also stores as a double value??? At least, if I use mongoDb without any advanced configuration it will store BigDecimal.TEN as 1E1.

Possible solutions?

I came with one - use String to store BigDecimal in Java as a String into the database. You have validation, for example @NotNull, @Min(10), etc... Then you can use a trigger on update or save to check if current string is a number you need. There are no triggers for mongo though. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29833442/is-there-a-built-in-way-for-mongodb-trigger-function-calls

There is one drawback I am having fun around - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54669339/bigdecimal-as-string-in-swagger-defenition?noredirect=1#comment96129838_54669339

I need to generate swagger, so our front-end team understands that I pass them a number presented as a String. DateTime for example presented as a String.

There is another cool solution I read in the article above... Use long to store precise numbers.

> A standard long value can store the current value of the Unites States national debt (as cents, not dollars) 6477 times without any overflow. Whats more: it’s an integer type, not a floating point. This makes it easier and accurate to work with, and a guaranteed behavior.

---

Update

https://stackoverflow.com/a/27978223/4587961

Maybe in the future MongoDb will add support for BigDecimal. https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-1393 3.3.8 seems to have this done.

It is an example of the second approach. Use scaling. http://www.technology-ebay.de/the-teams/mobile-de/blog/mapping-bigdecimals-with-morphia-for-mongodb.html