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Re: Sorting numeric strings

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From Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject Re: Sorting numeric strings
Date Fri, 4 May 2012 20:01:50 +0000 (UTC)
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On Thu, 03 May 2012 18:11:44 -0700, Lew wrote:

> But then there's BigDecimal, with perfect accuracy. So there are
> choices.
>
Yes. Using floating point for exact financial figures is almost 
invariably a wrong move. Use int or long, depending on the size of the 
values you must handle, to represent the value in the smallest subunits, 
i.e. store dollars, and euros as an integer representing cents, and use 
an external representation with a decimal point interpolated at the 
appropriate position[*] for the currency or, alternatively, use 
BigDecimal. Always used fixed point arithmetic.

[*] different currencies have different subunits: I've seen currencies 
with zero, 2 or 3 digits after the decimal point.

I think you'll find that using floating point for financial amounts was 
an abberation introduced by programmers on early 8 and 16 bit micros who  
wrote financial packages in BASIC.

Early mainframes stored currency values as binary or BCD integers and all 
modern systems should do the same


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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Thread

Sorting numeric strings Ben <no@way.com> - 2012-04-30 21:27 -0400
  Re: Sorting numeric strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-04-30 21:39 -0400
  Re: Sorting numeric strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-01 10:30 -0700
  Re: Sorting numeric strings Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-05-01 10:53 -0700
    Re: Sorting numeric strings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-01 14:50 -0700
      Re: Sorting numeric strings Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-05-01 15:02 -0700
        Re: Sorting numeric strings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-02 14:36 -0700
          Re: Sorting numeric strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-02 19:57 -0700
          Re: Sorting numeric strings Dr J R Stockton <reply1218@merlyn.demon.co.uk.not.invalid> - 2012-05-03 19:41 +0100
            Re: Sorting numeric strings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-03 17:40 -0700
              Re: Sorting numeric strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-05-03 18:11 -0700
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-05-04 20:01 +0000
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-04 14:19 -0700
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-05-04 23:36 +0000
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Dr J R Stockton <reply1218@merlyn.demon.co.uk.not.invalid> - 2012-05-06 17:50 +0100
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-07 10:34 -0700
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-05-07 12:38 -0500
                Re: Sorting numeric strings glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 17:48 +0000
                Re: Sorting numeric strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-07 11:42 -0700
  Re: Sorting numeric strings Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-05-01 13:38 -0700

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