rounding a double in a number of significant numbers

[rikribbers]

After calulating some number i need to round the result into a "variable" (only 2 or 3) number of significant figures.

e.g.
0.00245 2 --> 0.0025 3 --> 0.00245
5141.0 2 --> 5100.0 3 --> 5140.0
1.0202 2 --> 1.0 3 --> 1.02

I couldn't found a standard solution in the JAVA API. I tried the Decimal formatter but this only rounds to a number of figures behind the . (I don't know the exact english term but 0.000022115 is shown as 0.00 instead of 0.000022).

There is a mathematical formula for rounding. I implemented as following in my code:

static public Double roundDouble(Double l_value, Integer a_NumberOfSignificantFigures)
{

Double l_roundedvalue = null;

if (l_value != null && a_NumberOfSignificantFigures > 0 && l_value > 0.0)
{
// this truncates all irrelevant numbers
double l_exp = Math.floor((Math.log10(l_value)- a_NumberOfSignificantFigures + 1));
double l_power = Math.pow(10, l_exp);

l_roundedvalue = Math.floor((l_value/l_power) + 0.5) * l_power;

}
else
{
// if rounding is not possible return original result
l_roundedvalue = l_value;
}

return l_roundedvalue;
}

To display the rounded values I use the toString() method.


The result is that in most cases the result is as expected but for some there result is shown as:

250.000000000002 or 0.00000098000004.

I am aware of the fact that this happens with floating point precision.

However I'm looking for a solution to print the two examples above as 250.0 and 00000098 (in case of 2 significant figures). I don't want to use the scientific notation.

The only solution I can think of is to write my own string formatter to display the doubles correct. However I cannot imagine there isn't a standard java solution to this problem.

Any help is appreciated.

Rik

[ceoforwww]

EN...

when I see this,,i don't understand:

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[rikribbers]

I found the solution (on another forum):

This can easily be achieved through BigDecimal:

import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.math.MathContext;
import java.math.RoundingMode;

public class SignificantFigures {

public static void main(String[] args) {
double a = 123.4567;
double b = 0.1234567;
double c = 7.654321;
double d = 7654321;

System.out.println(getSignificant(a, 4));
System.out.println(getSignificant(b, 4));
System.out.println(getSignificant(c, 4));
System.out.println(getSignificant(d, 4));
}

public static String getSignificant(double value, int sigFigs) {
MathContext mc = new MathContext(sigFigs, RoundingMode.DOWN);
BigDecimal bigDecimal = new BigDecimal(value, mc);
return bigDecimal.toPlainString();
}
}