1999 VM and VSE Technical Conference - Abstracts

14-16 June 1999
Mainz, Germany

3B7 Decimal Arithmetic in Java

Presented by Mike Cowlishaw, IBM Fellow, IBM UK, Ltd.

Abstract:

Computer systems must provide an arithmetic that gives the results that people expect. This is not available in Java 1.1 or 1.2, so IBM has introduced (and includes with all new IBM JDK's) an enhanced BigDecimal class, which includes decimal floating point numbers -- an arithmetic which gives the same results as the arithmetic that people learn at school. This class, and its supporting MathContext class, make it especially easy to add human-oriented arithmetic to your applications.

This session will introduce decimal arithmetic, the java.math.BigDecimal class, and the enhancements in com.ibm.math.BigDecimal. In addition, to examples of using the methods in the class, performance issues will be covered. The talk will emphasize practical examples of using the class to add human-oriented arithmetic to applications.

Review other topics

• VM Topics
• VSE Topics
• General Interest Topics

Return to 1999 VM & VSE Conference Page
Return to VM Calendar of Events
Return to VSE Calendar of Events.

Conference event information is subject to change without notice.