Learn more on Scala Types : Handling Very Large Numbers : Day 3 Learnings

Handling Very Large Numbers

You’re writing an application and need to use very large integer or decimal numbers.

Use the Scala BigInt and BigDecimal classes. 

You can create a BigInt :

scala> var b = BigInt(1234567890)

b: scala.math.BigInt = 1234567890

You can create a BigDecimal :

scala> var b = BigDecimal(123456.789)

b: scala.math.BigDecimal = 123456.789

Unlike their Java equivalents, these classes support all the operators you’re used to using with numeric types:

scala> b + b

res0: scala.math.BigInt = 2469135780

scala> b * b

res1: scala.math.BigInt = 1524157875019052100

scala> b += 1

scala> println(b)

1234567891

You can convert them to other numeric types:

scala> b.toInt

res2: Int = 1234567891

scala> b.toLong

res3: Long = 1234567891

scala> b.toFloat

res4: Float = 1.23456794E9

scala> b.toDouble

res5: Double = 1.234567891E9

To help avoid errors, you can also test them first to see if they can be converted to other numeric types:

scala> b.isValidByte

res6: Boolean = false

scala> b.isValidChar

res7: Boolean = false

scala> b.isValidShort

res8: Boolean = false

scala> if (b.isValidInt) b.toInt

res9: AnyVal = 1234567890

Although the Scala BigInt and BigDecimal classes are backed by the Java BigInteger and BigDecimal classes, they are simpler to use than their Java counterparts.

As you can see in the examples, they work just like other numeric types, and they’re also mutable (as you saw in the += example). These are nice improvements over the Java classes.

scala> Byte.MaxValue
res0: Byte = 127

scala> Short.MaxValue
res1: Short = 32767

scala> Int.MaxValue
res2: Int = 2147483647

scala> Long.MaxValue
res3: Long = 9223372036854775807

scala> Double.MaxValue
res4: Double = 1.7976931348623157E308


Depending on your needs, you may also be able to use the PositiveInfinity and NegativeInfinity of the standard numeric types:

scala> Double.PositiveInfinity
res0: Double = Infinity

scala> Double.NegativeInfinity
res1: Double = -Infinity

scala> 1.7976931348623157E308 > Double.PositiveInfinity
res45: Boolean = false

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