See also JSR-363 https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=363
Gary On Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 10:56 AM Daniel Watson <dcwatso...@gmail.com> wrote: > I brought this up in commons-math and it was determined that that probably > wasn't a good place for it, as that lib focuses on computational functions. > It was also mentioned that commons-numbers was not a great place for the > static util method either. > > Essentially the need for this relates to scientific measurements. > Measurements are often reported with implied precision and uncertainty > (e.g. 0.0015 has 2 significant figures, 1.10 has 3, etc). Currently there > are no Number classes that retain or respect this information. There are > widely accepted conventions for how to retain and adjust both precision and > uncertainty during mathematical operations. But the first step is simply > knowing what those two values are. I propose a util method (already > written) in NumberUtils that can do this. The conventions are widely > documented but would be spelled out very specifically in the javadoc. > Although NumberUtils mainly focuses on pure math transformation, it does > also include some parsing, so this doesn't seem to be *completely* out of > scope. > > Is NumberUtils a possible home for this? > > On a separate, but related note, I honestly think this sort of math > actually deserves a full blown java Number implementation (similar to > BigFraction and Complex classes in commons- numbers). Possibly called > BigMeasurement? Which can interact with other Number implementations as > well as other BigMeasurements and retain/report the correct uncertainty and > precision throughout the computation. I haven't ironed that out - but a > necessary intermediate step is just being able to get the sigfig count. > > Dan >
