The BigDecimal class

public class BigDecimal
extends java.lang.Number
implements java.lang.Serializable, java.lang.Comparable

The BigDecimal class provides immutable arbitrary-precision decimal numbers. The methods of the BigDecimal class provide operations for fixed and floating point arithmetic, comparison, format conversions, and hashing.

As the numbers are decimal, there is an exact correspondence between an instance of a BigDecimal object and its String representation; the BigDecimal class provides direct conversions to and from String and character array objects, as well as conversions to and from the Java primitive types (which may not be exact) and BigInteger.

In the descriptions of constructors and methods that follow, the value of a BigDecimal number object is shown as the result of invoking the toString() method on the object. The internal representation of a decimal number is neither defined nor exposed, and is not permitted to affect the result of any operation.

Operations on BigDecimal numbers are controlled by a MathContext object, which provides precision and other information. Default settings are used if no MathContext object is provided.

The names of methods in this class follow the conventions established by java.lang.Number, java.math.BigInteger, and java.math.BigDecimal in Java 1.1 and Java 1.2.