Compare BigDecimal values in Java

Question

I want to compare values and execute some condition if some of the values are found. In Java I tried using this code:

if(item.getLenght().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(50))
                        || item.getSocre().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(500))
                        || item.getAge().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(5000)))
                        {
                        ....... do some action
}

But I get error Operator '||' cannot be applied to 'int', 'int'

What is the proper way to implement this check?

Perhaps you mean `.equals` instead of `.compareTo`? What *integer* results from `compareTo` would you expect to mean "execute the body of the if statement", and what *integer* results would you expect to mean "don't execute the body of the if statement"? — Jon Skeet, Feb 04 '23 at 11:03
@JonSkeet Not a good idea to compare BigDecimals with equals — TT., Feb 04 '23 at 11:03
@TT.: Care to elaborate? We don't know what the OP is trying to achieve. I agree there are cases where it's not desirable (where 50 and 50.0 should be seen as equivalent, which they're not under equals) but I wouldn't make a blanket statement like that - particularly with no further explanation. — Jon Skeet, Feb 04 '23 at 11:05
@JonSkeet The user is trying to establish if the numbers represented by the BigDecimal objects are equal. But using equals is a gotcha, as `new BigDecimal( "1.00" )` and `new BigDecimal( "1" )` are not equal (because the one has two decimal digits, the other doesn't). Using compare does a number comparison, where 1.00 and 1 are effectively equal and `compareTo` returns 0. But you knew that already it seems. And there is no real world case I ever encountered where using equals to compare BigDecimals is what is really intended. — TT., Feb 04 '23 at 17:50

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '23 at 11:03

The method BigDecimal#compareTo(BigDecimal) returns int, not boolean, so the operator || won't work.

You need to change your code a bit:

if (item.getLenght().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(50)) == 0
    || item.getSocre().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(500)) == 0
    || item.getAge().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(5000)) == 0) {

    // do something funny
}

antonio_s87 · Answer 2 · 2023-02-04T11:04:54.237

1

Compare to method does not return boolean, it returns int. Here is the spec https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/math/BigDecimal.html#compareTo(java.math.BigDecimal) So if you want to check if length is equal to 50 you need to write:

item.getLenght().compareTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(50)) == 0

The same applies to all other conditions in your code.

edited Feb 04 '23 at 11:04

answered Feb 04 '23 at 11:04

antonio_s87

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Compare BigDecimal values in Java

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