Decimal Arithmetic 1

[Rewbs]

Hi all,
2 points:

1. I'm looking for a calculation that would show the advantages of using the decimal primitive in C#, ie a calculation that would yield different results when using floats and decimals.

I Java such calculations would be repeatedly dividing 9 by 10, or 0.70 * 1.05. With C#, these give correct results even with floats and doubles.


2. What is the point of the Decimal class? does it offer any advantages over the decimal primitive, or is it just a wrapper class?

Cheers,
Robin

 

[chiph]

The decimal class is most useful when dealing with money, as you don't want fractions of a cent being generated/dropped when calculating interest.

Chip H.

 

[Rewbs]

Thanks for your reply. Could you possibly elaborate on this? What exactly does the Decimal class do that the decimal primitive doesn't?

 

[chiph]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question (most people ask why use the decimal datatype over the float or double datatype).

Using the Decimal class vs. the decimal C# datatype is really a matter of taste. In the C# programmer's reference, there's a table called Built-in Types, which shows that the decimal datatype is an alias for System.Decimal, so they're equivalent.

If you think your code will ever be ported to another .NET language (VB, COBOL, etc) then use the one from the framework, as that will require less work during your port.

Chip H.