How to add two java.lang.Numbers?

Solution 1:

You say you don't know if your numbers are integer or float... when you use the Number class, the compiler also doesn't know if your numbers are integers, floats or some other thing. As a result, the basic math operators like + and - don't work; the computer wouldn't know how to handle the values.

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Based on the discussion, I thought an example might help. Computers store floating point numbers as two parts, a coefficient and an exponent. So, in a theoretical system, 001110 might be broken up as 0011 10, or 3² = 9. But positive integers store numbers as binary, so 001110 could also mean 2 + 4 + 8 = 14. When you use the class Number, you're telling the computer you don't know if the number is a float or an int or what, so it knows it has 001110 but it doesn't know if that means 9 or 14 or some other value.

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What you can do is make a little assumption and convert to one of the types to do the math. So you could have

Number c = a.intValue() + b.intValue();

which you might as well turn into

Integer c = a.intValue() + b.intValue();

if you're willing to suffer some rounding error, or

Float c = a.floatValue() + b.floatValue();

if you suspect that you're not dealing with integers and are okay with possible minor precision issues. Or, if you'd rather take a small performance blow instead of that error,

BigDecimal c = new BigDecimal(a.floatValue()).add(new BigDecimal(b.floatValue()));

Solution 2:

It would also work to make a method to handle the adding for you. Now I do not know the performance impact this will cause but I assume it will be less than using BigDecimal.

public static Number addNumbers(Number a, Number b) {
    if(a instanceof Double || b instanceof Double) {
        return a.doubleValue() + b.doubleValue();
    } else if(a instanceof Float || b instanceof Float) {
        return a.floatValue() + b.floatValue();
    } else if(a instanceof Long || b instanceof Long) {
        return a.longValue() + b.longValue();
    } else {
        return a.intValue() + b.intValue();
    }
}

Solution 3:

The only way to correctly add any two types of java.lang.Number is:

Number a = 2f; // Foat
Number b = 3d; // Double
Number c = new BigDecimal( a.toString() ).add( new BigDecimal( b.toString() ) );

This works even for two arguments with a different number-type. It will (should?) not produce any sideeffects like overflows or loosing precision, as far as the toString() of the number-type does not reduce precision.

Solution 4:

java.lang.Number is just the superclass of all wrapper classes of primitive types (see java doc). Use the appropriate primitive type (double, int, etc.) for your purpose, or the respective wrapper class (Double, Integer, etc.).

Consider this:

Number a = 1.5; // Actually Java creates a double and boxes it into a Double object
Number b = 1; // Same here for int -> Integer boxed

// What should the result be? If Number would do implicit casts,
// it would behave different from what Java usually does.
Number c = a + b; 

// Now that works, and you know at first glance what that code does.
// Nice explicit casts like you usually use in Java.
// The result is of course again a double that is boxed into a Double object
Number d = a.doubleValue() + (double)b.intValue();