We Keep Coding

How to cast from String to BigDecimal with the separator as a comma? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Java BigDecimal can have comma instead dot?
(3 answers)
Closed 3 months ago.
I have a method to set a BigDecimal number that is given as String:
private Client mapClient(Client client){
ClientRequest clientRequest = new ClientRequest();
// Code
clientRequest.setCashAmount(castStringToBigDecimal(client.getCashAmount()));
// More Code
}
My castStringToBigDecimal method is the follosing:
public BigDecimal castStringToBigDecimal(String value){
BigDecimal response = null;
if(value != null && !value.equals("")){
value = value.replaceAll("[.]", ",");
response = new BigDecimal(value);
}
return response;
}
An example of the input value is "1554.21"
I need that the bigDecimal separator to be a comma, not a dot. But this is giving me an exception.
EDIT
The value is the following:
And the exception is:
java.lang.NumberFormatException: Character , is neither a decimal digit number, decimal point, nor "e" notation exponential mark.

BigDecimal doesn't represent a rendering. In other words, whether to use a comma or a dot as separator is not part of the properties a BigDecimal object has.
Hence, you do not want to call .replaceAll. (And separately, you'd want .replace(".", ",") - replace replaces all, and replaceAll also replaces all and interprets the first arg as a regex, and is therefore needlessly confusing here). Just pass it with the dot.
To render a BigDecimal, don't just sysout it, that will always show a dot and there is nothing you can do about that. toString() is almost never the appropriate tool for the job of rendering data to a user - it's a debugging aid, nothing more. Use e.g. String.format("%f"), specifying the appropriate locale. Or use NumberFormat. The javadoc of BigDecimal explicitly spells this out.
There are various other issues with your code:
"cast" is the technical name for the syntactic construct: (Type) expr; - and this construct does 3 utterly different things, hence using it to describe a task, i.e. use it in a method name, is a very bad idea. In particular, only one of the 3 things it does converts anything, and you clearly use it here in the 'convert something' meaning. This is misleading; only if it's all primitives does the cast operator convert, and BigDecimal isn't primitive. Call it convertTo or whatever you please, not "cast".
BigDecimal is an extremely complicated tool for the job and usually not the right tool if you want to represent financial data. Instead, represent the atomary unit in a long and call the appropriate rendering method whenever you need to show it to a user. For example, for euros, the atomary unit is the eurocent. If something costs €1,50, you'd store "150", in a long. Before you think: But, wait, I want to divide, and then I'd lose half a cent! - yes, well, you can't exactly send your bank a request to transfer half a cent, either. Also, try to divide 4 cents by 3 with a BigDecimal and see what happens. Dividing financial amounts is tricky no matter what you use, BD isn't a catch-all solution to this problem.

I looked up the source code for Java 8's implementation of BigDecimal (https://github.com/frohoff/jdk8u-dev-jdk/blob/master/src/share/classes/java/math/BigDecimal.java), and the period character is hard-coded in that source as the decimal point. I would not have thought this of a language for which internationalization has been so thoroughly designed in, but there it is, line 466.
Given that the author(s) of BigDecimal failed to take locale into account in such a basic way -- the use of comma instead of period as the decimal separator in Europe is well-known -- I'd have to say you cannot use that BigDecimal constructor on unaltered Strings that are otherwise formatted correctly but which (might) have a comma separator. There are other options -- the previous SO post referred to in one of the comments has one -- but it appears you cannot convert your String this way.
(One minor point -- you are not "casting" anything. That word has a specific meaning in OO programming, and a more specific one in Java, and has very little to do with your question. It is incorrect to refer to conversion as casting.)

Xtend: Generators produce comma instead of point

I am using template expressions for generating files. For example:
def generateStuff(MyObject in) {
'''
This is the wrong value: «calculatedoubleValue(in.doubleValue)»
'''
}
The value of doubleValue is an double. But the generator produces a comma instead of an point, as delimiter.
I also tried using DecimalFormat, for example:
def generateStuff(MyObject in) {
var df = new DecimalFormat("0.000");
var calculated = calculatedoubleValue(in.doubleValue)
'''
This is the wrong value: «df.format(calculated)»
'''
}
But unfortunately it still produces a comma. I wonder, because it only happens to a few values and not to all, allthough I am only working with doubles. Another strange thing is, that it produces points, when debugging (Runtime Eclipse Application) but commas after I export the application as an Eclipse product.
What could be the cause for this?

Within template expressions toString() is invoked on any values (see StringConcatenation).
Double.toString will always use '.', so the issue must be somewhere else.
Maybe the problem is in your 'calculatedDouble' method?

Although I don't have much info about your environment, based on your example code you do not directly use Double.toString() (that always uses . as decimal separator) but DecimalFormat which is locale-sensitive.
When DecimalFormat is constructed by using the DecimalFormat(String), it will use the default "format locale". In some locales the decimal separator is . (e.g. in English) but in other locales it is , (e.g. in Hungarian). See the API docs for more details.
Proposed solutions to your problem:
Ensure that the application uses the same locale in each case.
Set the locale-specific formatting options explicitly.
Real code:
#Test
public void testDecimalFormat() {
assertEquals("0.000", new DecimalFormat("0.000", new DecimalFormatSymbols(Locale.ENGLISH)).format(0.0));
assertEquals("0,000", new DecimalFormat("0.000", new DecimalFormatSymbols(new Locale("hu"))).format(0.0));
}

Inserting custom String between number and decimal - Java DecimalFormat

Hello and thank you in advance for the help.
I am having some trouble formatting using a Java function to mark up a price in HTML.
It seems that, no matter what I do, I cannot insert custom content between the numbers and the decimal (throws Illegal Argument Exception). Is there any known way to achieve the following:
NumberFormat nf = getNumberFormat("'<span class=\"dollars\">'##'</span></span class=\"decimal\">'.'</span></span class=\"cents\">'00'</span>'", locale);
nf.format(number);
Assume locale and number are correctly initialized.

If you look at the docs for DecimalFormat you'll see that they talk about the prefix and the suffix text - but not putting arbitrary text within a number.
It sounds like you should basically write this bit of formatting yourself - possibly using DecimalFormat for each section of the number.

You might consider using String.format(String pattern, Object... arguments). You can pass your simply formatted numbers as arguments.

I need a fast key substitution algorithm for java

Given a string with replacement keys in it, how can I most efficiently replace these keys with runtime values, using Java? I need to do this often, fast, and on reasonably long strings (say, on average, 1-2kb). The form of the keys is my choice, since I'm providing the templates here too.
Here's an example (please don't get hung up on it being XML; I want to do this, if possible, cheaper than using XSL or DOM operations). I'd want to replace all #[^#]*?# patterns in this with property values from bean properties, true Property properties, and some other sources. The key here is fast. Any ideas?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<envelope version="2.3">
<delivery_instructions>
<delivery_channel>
<channel_type>#CHANNEL_TYPE#</channel_type>
</delivery_channel>
<delivery_envelope>
<chan_delivery_envelope>
<queue_name>#ADDRESS#</queue_name>
</chan_delivery_envelope>
</delivery_envelope>
</delivery_instructions>
<composition_instructions>
<mime_part content_type="application/xml">
<content><external_uri>#URI#</external_uri></content>
</mime_part>
</composition_instructions>
</envelope>
The naive implementation is to use String.replaceAll() but I can't help but think that's less than ideal. If I can avoid adding new third-party dependencies, so much the better.

The appendReplacement method in Matcher looks like it might be useful, although I can't vouch for its speed.
Here's the sample code from the Javadoc:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("cat");
Matcher m = p.matcher("one cat two cats in the yard");
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
while (m.find()) {
m.appendReplacement(sb, "dog");
}
m.appendTail(sb);
System.out.println(sb.toString());
EDIT: If this is as complicated as it gets, you could probably implement your own state machine fairly easily. You'd pretty much be doing what appendReplacement is already doing, although a specialized implementation might be faster.

It's premature to leap to writing your own. I would start with the naive replace solution, and actually benchmark that. Then I would try a third-party templating solution. THEN I would take a stab at the custom stream version.
Until you get some hard numbers, how can you be sure it's worth the effort to optimize it?

Does Java have a form of regexp replace() where a function gets called?
I'm spoiled by the Javascript String.replace() method. (For that matter you could run Rhino and use Javascript, but somehow I don't think that would be anywhere near as fast as a pure Java call even if the Javascript compiler/interpreter were efficient)
edit: never mind, #mmyers probably has the best answer.
gratuitous point-groveling: (and because I wanted to see if I could do it myself :)
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("#([^#]*?)#");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
while (m.find())
{
m.appendReplacement(sb,substitutionTable.lookupKey(m.group(1)));
}
m.appendTail(sb);
// replace "substitutionTable.lookupKey" with your routine

You really want to write something custom so you can avoid processing the string more than once. I can't stress this enough - as most of the other solutions I see look like they are ignoring that problem.
Optionally turn the text into a stream. Read it char by char forwarding each char to an output string/stream until you see the # then read to the next # slurping out the key, substituting the key into the output: repeat until end of stream.
I know it's plain old brute for - but it's probably the best.
I'm assuming you have some reasonable assumption around '#' not just 'showing up' independant of your token keys in the input. :)

please don't get hung up on it being XML; I want to do this, if possible, cheaper than using XSL or DOM operations
Whatever's downstream from your process will get hung up if you don't also process the inserted strings for character escapes. Which isn't to say that you can't do it yourself if you have good cause, but does mean you either have to make sure your patterns are all in text nodes, and you also correctly escape the replacement text.
What exact advantage does #Foo# have over the standard &Foo; syntax already built into the XML libraries which ship with Java?

Text processing is going to always be bounded if you dont shift your paradigm. I dont know how flexible your domain is, so not sure if this is applicable, but here goes:
try creating an index into where your text substitution is - this is especially good if the template doesnt change often, because it becomes part of the "compile" of the template, into a binary object that can take in the value required for the substitutions, and blit out the entire string as a byte array. This object can be cached/saved, and next time, resubstitute in the new value to use again. I.e., you save on parsing the document every time. (implementation is left as an exercise to the reader =D )
But please use a profiler to check whether this is actually the bottleneck that you say it is before embarking on writing a custom templating engine. The problem may actually be else where.

As others have said, appendReplacement() and appendTail() are the tools you need, but there's something you have watch out for. If the replacement string contains any dollar signs, the method will try to interpret them as capture-group references. If there are any backslashes (which are used to escape the dollars sing), it will either eat them or throw an exception.
If your replacement string is dynamically generated, you may not know in advance whether it will contain any dollar signs or backslashes. To prevent problems, you can append the replacement directly to the StringBuffer, like so:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("#([^#]*?)#");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
while (m.find())
{
m.appendReplacement("");
sb.append(substitutionTable.lookupKey(m.group(1)));
}
m.appendTail(sb);
You still have to call appendReplacement() each time, because that's what keeps you in sync with the match position. But this trick avoids a lot of pointless processing, which could give you a noticeable performance boost as a bonus.

this is what I use, from the apache commons project
http://commons.apache.org/lang/api/org/apache/commons/lang/text/StrSubstitutor.html

I also have a non-regexp based substitution library, available here. I have not tested its speed, and it doesn't directly support the syntax in your example. But it would be easy to extend to support that syntax; see, for instance, this class.

Take a look at a library that specializes in this, e.g., Apache Velocity. If nothing else, you can bet their implementation for this part of the logic is fast.

I wouldn't be so sure the accepted answer is faster than String.replaceAll(String,String). Here for your comparison is the implementation of String.replaceAll and the Matcher.replaceAll that is used under the covers. looks very similar to what the OP is looking for, and I'm guessing its probably more optomized than this simplistic solution.
public String replaceAll(String s, String s1)
{
return Pattern.compile(s).matcher(this).replaceAll(s1);
}
public String replaceAll(String s)
{
reset();
boolean flag = find();
if(flag)
{
StringBuffer stringbuffer = new StringBuffer();
boolean flag1;
do
{
appendReplacement(stringbuffer, s);
flag1 = find();
} while(flag1);
appendTail(stringbuffer);
return stringbuffer.toString();
} else
{
return text.toString();
}
}

... Chii is right.
If this is a template that has to be run so many times that speed matters, find the index of your substitution tokens to be able to get to them directly without having to start at the beginning each time. Abstract the 'compilation' into an object with the nice properties, they should only need updating after a change to the template.

Rythm a java template engine now released with an new feature called String interpolation mode which allows you do something like:
String result = Rythm.render("Hello #who!", "world");
The above case shows you can pass argument to template by position. Rythm also allows you to pass arguments by name:
Map<String, Object> args = new HashMap<String, Object>();
args.put("title", "Mr.");
args.put("name", "John");
String result = Rythm.render("Hello #title #name", args);
Since your template content is relatively long you could put them into a file and then call Rythm.render using the same API:
Map<String, Object> args = new HashMap<String, Object>();
// ... prepare the args
String result = Rythm.render("path/to/my/template.xml", args);
Note Rythm compile your template into java byte code and it's fairly fast, about 2 times faster than String.format
Links:
Check the full featured demonstration
read a brief introduction to Rythm
download the latest package or
fork it

Inserting a Java string in another string without concatenation? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to format strings in Java
(10 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
Is there a more elegant way of doing this in Java?
String value1 = "Testing";
String test = "text goes here " + value1 + " more text";
Is it possible to put the variable directly in the string and have its value evaluated?

String test = String.format("test goes here %s more text", "Testing");
is the closest thing that you could write in Java

A more elegant way might be:
String value = "Testing";
String template = "text goes here %s more text";
String result = String.format(template, value);
Or alternatively using MessageFormat:
String template = "text goes here {0} more text";
String result = MessageFormat.format(template, value);
Note, if you're doing this for logging, then you can avoid the cost of performing this when the log line would be below the threshold. For example with SLFJ:
The following two lines will yield the exact same output. However, the second form will outperform the first form by a factor of at least 30, in case of a disabled logging statement.
logger.debug("The new entry is "+entry+".");
logger.debug("The new entry is {}.", entry);

Rythm a java template engine now released with an new feature called String interpolation mode which allows you do something like:
String result = Rythm.render("Hello #who!", "world");
The above case shows you can pass argument to template by position. Rythm also allows you to pass arguments by name:
Map<String, Object> args = new HashMap<String, Object>();
args.put("title", "Mr.");
args.put("name", "John");
String result = Rythm.render("Hello #title #name", args);
Links:
Check the full featured demonstration
read a brief introduction to Rythm
download the latest package or
fork it

It may be done by some template-libaries. But beware, Strings are immutable in Java. So in every case at some low level the concatenation will be done.

You'll always have to use some form of concatenation for this (assuming value1 isn't a constant like you show here).
The way you've written it will implicitly construct a StringBuilder and use it to concatenate the strings. Another method is String.format(String, Object...)1, which is analogous to sprintf from C. But even with format(), you can't avoid concatenation.
1 Yes, I know the anchor link is broken.

What you want is called String interpolation. It is not possible in Java, although JRuby, Groovy and probably other JVM languages do that.
Edit: as for elegance, you can use a StringBuffer or check the other poster's solution. But at the low level, this will always be concatenation, as the other posters said.

You can use this free library. It gives you sprintf like functionality. Or use String.format static method provided you use Java 5 or newer.

Why do you think string concatenation isn't elegant?
If all you are doing is simple concatenation, I'd argue that code readability is more important and I'd leave it like you have it. It's more readable than using a StringBuilder.
Performance won't be the problem that most people think it is.
Read this from CodingHorror

I would use a StringBuffer.. it's a common practise when you are dealing with strings. It may seem a bit when you see it for the first time, but you'll get quickly used to it..
String test = new StringBuffer("text goes here ").append(value1).append(" more text").toString();
Strings are immutable thus a new instance is created after every concatenation. This can cause performance issues when used in loops.
StringBuffer is mutable version of String - that means you can create one, modify it as you want and you have still only one instance. When desired you can get a String representation of the StringBuffer by calling it's toString() method.

The problem is not if this is an elegant way or not. The idea behind using a template system may be that you put your template in a normal text file and don't have to change java code if you change your message (or think about i18ln).