Groovy as a substitute for Java when using BigDecimal?

Question

I have just completed an evaluation of Java, Groovy and Scala.

The factors I considered were: readability, precision

The factors I would like to know: performance, ease of integration

I needed a BigDecimal level of precision.

Here are my results:

Java

void someOp()
{
    BigDecimal del_theta_1 = toDec(6);
    BigDecimal del_theta_2 = toDec(2);
    BigDecimal del_theta_m = toDec(0);

    del_theta_m = abs(del_theta_1.subtract(del_theta_2))
      .divide(log(del_theta_1.divide(del_theta_2)));

}

Groovy

void someOp()
{
 def del_theta_1 = 6.0
 def del_theta_2 = 2.0
 def del_theta_m = 0.0

 del_theta_m = Math.abs(del_theta_1 - del_theta_2) / Math.log(del_theta_1 / del_theta_2);
}

Scala

def other(){
 var del_theta_1 = toDec(6);
 var del_theta_2 = toDec(2);
 var del_theta_m = toDec(0);
 del_theta_m = (
  abs(del_theta_1 - del_theta_2)  
  / log(del_theta_1 / del_theta_2)
 )
}

Note that in Java and Scala I used static imports.

Java: Pros: it is Java
Cons: no operator overloading (lots o methods), barely readable/codeable

Groovy: Pros: default BigDecimal means no visible typing, least surprising BigDecimal support for all operations (division included)
Cons: another language to learn

Scala: Pros: has operator overloading for BigDecimal
Cons: some surprising behaviour with division (fixed with Decimal128), another language to learn

Answer 1

If the major core of your code is a lot of BigDecimal math, Java is just not the right language IMO. You need the operator overloading.

I hope that a future version of Java will allow system defined operator overloading for the built-in number types to make this kind of use case usable.

Since all these languages run on the JVM, you could of course get the advanced math done in the right language and use Java for everything else. That would minimize the "learn another language" aspect.

Answer 2

The core of BigDecimal is the same in each language. If the limiting factors for performance are the mathematical operations in BigDecimal, then there will be no difference between the three languages, because they all use java.math.BigDecimal.

Therefore, use the language which is easiest to read and understand (which is probably not java).