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Float.javaAPI DocJava SE 5 API33728Fri Aug 26 14:57:02 BST 2005java.lang

Float

public final class Float extends Number implements Comparable
The Float class wraps a value of primitive type float in an object. An object of type Float contains a single field whose type is float.

In addition, this class provides several methods for converting a float to a String and a String to a float, as well as other constants and methods useful when dealing with a float.

author
Lee Boynton
author
Arthur van Hoff
author
Joseph D. Darcy
version
1.94, 05/11/04
since
JDK1.0

Fields Summary
public static final float
POSITIVE_INFINITY
A constant holding the positive infinity of type float. It is equal to the value returned by Float.intBitsToFloat(0x7f800000).
public static final float
NEGATIVE_INFINITY
A constant holding the negative infinity of type float. It is equal to the value returned by Float.intBitsToFloat(0xff800000).
public static final float
NaN
A constant holding a Not-a-Number (NaN) value of type float. It is equivalent to the value returned by Float.intBitsToFloat(0x7fc00000).
public static final float
MAX_VALUE
A constant holding the largest positive finite value of type float, (2-2-23)·2127. It is equal to the hexadecimal floating-point literal 0x1.fffffeP+127f and also equal to Float.intBitsToFloat(0x7f7fffff).
public static final float
MIN_VALUE
A constant holding the smallest positive nonzero value of type float, 2-149. It is equal to the hexadecimal floating-point literal 0x0.000002P-126f and also equal to Float.intBitsToFloat(0x1).
public static final int
SIZE
The number of bits used to represent a float value.
public static final Class
TYPE
The Class instance representing the primitive type float.
private final float
value
The value of the Float.
private static final long
serialVersionUID
use serialVersionUID from JDK 1.0.2 for interoperability
Constructors Summary
public Float(String s)
Constructs a newly allocated Float object that represents the floating-point value of type float represented by the string. The string is converted to a float value as if by the valueOf method.

param
s a string to be converted to a Float.
exception
NumberFormatException if the string does not contain a parsable number.
see
java.lang.Float#valueOf(java.lang.String)

	// REMIND: this is inefficient
	this(valueOf(s).floatValue());
    
public Float(float value)
Constructs a newly allocated Float object that represents the primitive float argument.

param
value the value to be represented by the Float.

	this.value = value;
    
public Float(double value)
Constructs a newly allocated Float object that represents the argument converted to type float.

param
value the value to be represented by the Float.

	this.value = (float)value;
    
Methods Summary
public bytebyteValue()
Returns the value of this Float as a byte (by casting to a byte).

return
the float value represented by this object converted to type byte

	return (byte)value;
    
public static intcompare(float f1, float f2)
Compares the two specified float values. The sign of the integer value returned is the same as that of the integer that would be returned by the call:
new Float(f1).compareTo(new Float(f2))

param
f1 the first float to compare.
param
f2 the second float to compare.
return
the value 0 if f1 is numerically equal to f2; a value less than 0 if f1 is numerically less than f2; and a value greater than 0 if f1 is numerically greater than f2.
since
1.4

       if (f1 < f2)
            return -1;		 // Neither val is NaN, thisVal is smaller
        if (f1 > f2)
            return 1;		 // Neither val is NaN, thisVal is larger

        int thisBits = Float.floatToIntBits(f1);
        int anotherBits = Float.floatToIntBits(f2);

        return (thisBits == anotherBits ?  0 : // Values are equal
                (thisBits < anotherBits ? -1 : // (-0.0, 0.0) or (!NaN, NaN)
                 1));                          // (0.0, -0.0) or (NaN, !NaN)
    
public intcompareTo(java.lang.Float anotherFloat)
Compares two Float objects numerically. There are two ways in which comparisons performed by this method differ from those performed by the Java language numerical comparison operators (<, <=, ==, >= >) when applied to primitive float values:
  • Float.NaN is considered by this method to be equal to itself and greater than all other float values (including Float.POSITIVE_INFINITY).
  • 0.0f is considered by this method to be greater than -0.0f.
This ensures that the natural ordering of Float objects imposed by this method is consistent with equals.

param
anotherFloat the Float to be compared.
return
the value 0 if anotherFloat is numerically equal to this Float; a value less than 0 if this Float is numerically less than anotherFloat; and a value greater than 0 if this Float is numerically greater than anotherFloat.
since
1.2
see
Comparable#compareTo(Object)

        return Float.compare(value, anotherFloat.value);
    
public doubledoubleValue()
Returns the double value of this Float object.

return
the float value represented by this object is converted to type double and the result of the conversion is returned.

	return (double)value;
    
public booleanequals(java.lang.Object obj)
Compares this object against the specified object. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and is a Float object that represents a float with the same value as the float represented by this object. For this purpose, two float values are considered to be the same if and only if the method {@link #floatToIntBits(float)} returns the identical int value when applied to each.

Note that in most cases, for two instances of class Float, f1 and f2, the value of f1.equals(f2) is true if and only if

f1.floatValue() == f2.floatValue()

also has the value true. However, there are two exceptions:

  • If f1 and f2 both represent Float.NaN, then the equals method returns true, even though Float.NaN==Float.NaN has the value false.
  • If f1 represents +0.0f while f2 represents -0.0f, or vice versa, the equal test has the value false, even though 0.0f==-0.0f has the value true.
This definition allows hash tables to operate properly.

param
obj the object to be compared
return
true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.
see
java.lang.Float#floatToIntBits(float)

	return (obj instanceof Float)
	       && (floatToIntBits(((Float)obj).value) == floatToIntBits(value));
    
public static native intfloatToIntBits(float value)
Returns a representation of the specified floating-point value according to the IEEE 754 floating-point "single format" bit layout.

Bit 31 (the bit that is selected by the mask 0x80000000) represents the sign of the floating-point number. Bits 30-23 (the bits that are selected by the mask 0x7f800000) represent the exponent. Bits 22-0 (the bits that are selected by the mask 0x007fffff) represent the significand (sometimes called the mantissa) of the floating-point number.

If the argument is positive infinity, the result is 0x7f800000.

If the argument is negative infinity, the result is 0xff800000.

If the argument is NaN, the result is 0x7fc00000.

In all cases, the result is an integer that, when given to the {@link #intBitsToFloat(int)} method, will produce a floating-point value the same as the argument to floatToIntBits (except all NaN values are collapsed to a single "canonical" NaN value).

param
value a floating-point number.
return
the bits that represent the floating-point number.

public static native intfloatToRawIntBits(float value)
Returns a representation of the specified floating-point value according to the IEEE 754 floating-point "single format" bit layout, preserving Not-a-Number (NaN) values.

Bit 31 (the bit that is selected by the mask 0x80000000) represents the sign of the floating-point number. Bits 30-23 (the bits that are selected by the mask 0x7f800000) represent the exponent. Bits 22-0 (the bits that are selected by the mask 0x007fffff) represent the significand (sometimes called the mantissa) of the floating-point number.

If the argument is positive infinity, the result is 0x7f800000.

If the argument is negative infinity, the result is 0xff800000.

If the argument is NaN, the result is the integer representing the actual NaN value. Unlike the floatToIntBits method, intToRawIntBits does not collapse all the bit patterns encoding a NaN to a single "canonical" NaN value.

In all cases, the result is an integer that, when given to the {@link #intBitsToFloat(int)} method, will produce a floating-point value the same as the argument to floatToRawIntBits.

param
value a floating-point number.
return
the bits that represent the floating-point number.

public floatfloatValue()
Returns the float value of this Float object.

return
the float value represented by this object

	return value;
    
public inthashCode()
Returns a hash code for this Float object. The result is the integer bit representation, exactly as produced by the method {@link #floatToIntBits(float)}, of the primitive float value represented by this Float object.

return
a hash code value for this object.

	return floatToIntBits(value);
    
public static native floatintBitsToFloat(int bits)
Returns the float value corresponding to a given bit representation. The argument is considered to be a representation of a floating-point value according to the IEEE 754 floating-point "single format" bit layout.

If the argument is 0x7f800000, the result is positive infinity.

If the argument is 0xff800000, the result is negative infinity.

If the argument is any value in the range 0x7f800001 through 0x7fffffff or in the range 0xff800001 through 0xffffffff, the result is a NaN. No IEEE 754 floating-point operation provided by Java can distinguish between two NaN values of the same type with different bit patterns. Distinct values of NaN are only distinguishable by use of the Float.floatToRawIntBits method.

In all other cases, let s, e, and m be three values that can be computed from the argument:

int s = ((bits >> 31) == 0) ? 1 : -1;
int e = ((bits >> 23) & 0xff);
int m = (e == 0) ?
(bits & 0x7fffff) << 1 :
(bits & 0x7fffff) | 0x800000;
Then the floating-point result equals the value of the mathematical expression s·m·2e-150.

Note that this method may not be able to return a float NaN with exactly same bit pattern as the int argument. IEEE 754 distinguishes between two kinds of NaNs, quiet NaNs and signaling NaNs. The differences between the two kinds of NaN are generally not visible in Java. Arithmetic operations on signaling NaNs turn them into quiet NaNs with a different, but often similar, bit pattern. However, on some processors merely copying a signaling NaN also performs that conversion. In particular, copying a signaling NaN to return it to the calling method may perform this conversion. So intBitsToFloat may not be able to return a float with a signaling NaN bit pattern. Consequently, for some int values, floatToRawIntBits(intBitsToFloat(start)) may not equal start. Moreover, which particular bit patterns represent signaling NaNs is platform dependent; although all NaN bit patterns, quiet or signaling, must be in the NaN range identified above.

param
bits an integer.
return
the float floating-point value with the same bit pattern.

public intintValue()
Returns the value of this Float as an int (by casting to type int).

return
the float value represented by this object converted to type int

	return (int)value;
    
public booleanisInfinite()
Returns true if this Float value is infinitely large in magnitude, false otherwise.

return
true if the value represented by this object is positive infinity or negative infinity; false otherwise.

	return isInfinite(value);
    
public static booleanisInfinite(float v)
Returns true if the specified number is infinitely large in magnitude, false otherwise.

param
v the value to be tested.
return
true if the argument is positive infinity or negative infinity; false otherwise.

	return (v == POSITIVE_INFINITY) || (v == NEGATIVE_INFINITY);
    
public booleanisNaN()
Returns true if this Float value is a Not-a-Number (NaN), false otherwise.

return
true if the value represented by this object is NaN; false otherwise.

	return isNaN(value);
    
public static booleanisNaN(float v)
Returns true if the specified number is a Not-a-Number (NaN) value, false otherwise.

param
v the value to be tested.
return
true if the argument is NaN; false otherwise.

	return (v != v);
    
public longlongValue()
Returns value of this Float as a long (by casting to type long).

return
the float value represented by this object converted to type long

	return (long)value;
    
public static floatparseFloat(java.lang.String s)
Returns a new float initialized to the value represented by the specified String, as performed by the valueOf method of class Float.

param
s the string to be parsed.
return
the float value represented by the string argument.
exception
NumberFormatException if the string does not contain a parsable float.
see
java.lang.Float#valueOf(String)
since
1.2

	return FloatingDecimal.readJavaFormatString(s).floatValue();
    
public shortshortValue()
Returns the value of this Float as a short (by casting to a short).

return
the float value represented by this object converted to type short
since
JDK1.1

	return (short)value;
    
public static java.lang.StringtoHexString(float f)
Returns a hexadecimal string representation of the float argument. All characters mentioned below are ASCII characters.
  • If the argument is NaN, the result is the string "NaN".
  • Otherwise, the result is a string that represents the sign and magnitude (absolute value) of the argument. If the sign is negative, the first character of the result is '-' ('\u002D'); if the sign is positive, no sign character appears in the result. As for the magnitude m:
    • If m is infinity, it is represented by the string "Infinity"; thus, positive infinity produces the result "Infinity" and negative infinity produces the result "-Infinity".
    • If m is zero, it is represented by the string "0x0.0p0"; thus, negative zero produces the result "-0x0.0p0" and positive zero produces the result "0x0.0p0".
    • If m is a float value with a normalized representation, substrings are used to represent the significand and exponent fields. The significand is represented by the characters "0x1." followed by a lowercase hexadecimal representation of the rest of the significand as a fraction. Trailing zeros in the hexadecimal representation are removed unless all the digits are zero, in which case a single zero is used. Next, the exponent is represented by "p" followed by a decimal string of the unbiased exponent as if produced by a call to {@link Integer#toString(int) Integer.toString} on the exponent value.
    • If m is a float value with a subnormal representation, the significand is represented by the characters "0x0." followed by a hexadecimal representation of the rest of the significand as a fraction. Trailing zeros in the hexadecimal representation are removed. Next, the exponent is represented by "p-126". Note that there must be at least one nonzero digit in a subnormal significand.

Examples

Floating-point ValueHexadecimal String
1.0 0x1.0p0
-1.0 -0x1.0p0
2.0 0x1.0p1
3.0 0x1.8p1
0.5 0x1.0p-1
0.25 0x1.0p-2
Float.MAX_VALUE 0x1.fffffep127
Minimum Normal Value 0x1.0p-126
Maximum Subnormal Value 0x0.fffffep-126
Float.MIN_VALUE 0x0.000002p-126

param
f the float to be converted.
return
a hex string representation of the argument.
since
1.5
author
Joseph D. Darcy

	if (Math.abs(f) < FloatConsts.MIN_NORMAL
	    &&  f != 0.0f ) {// float subnormal
	    // Adjust exponent to create subnormal double, then
	    // replace subnormal double exponent with subnormal float
	    // exponent
	    String s = Double.toHexString(FpUtils.scalb((double)f,
							/* -1022+126 */
							DoubleConsts.MIN_EXPONENT- 
							FloatConsts.MIN_EXPONENT));
	    return s.replaceFirst("p-1022$", "p-126");
	}
	else // double string will be the same as float string
	    return Double.toHexString(f);
    
public static java.lang.StringtoString(float f)
Returns a string representation of the float argument. All characters mentioned below are ASCII characters.
  • If the argument is NaN, the result is the string "NaN".
  • Otherwise, the result is a string that represents the sign and magnitude (absolute value) of the argument. If the sign is negative, the first character of the result is '-' ('\u002D'); if the sign is positive, no sign character appears in the result. As for the magnitude m:
    • If m is infinity, it is represented by the characters "Infinity"; thus, positive infinity produces the result "Infinity" and negative infinity produces the result "-Infinity".
    • If m is zero, it is represented by the characters "0.0"; thus, negative zero produces the result "-0.0" and positive zero produces the result "0.0".
    • If m is greater than or equal to 10-3 but less than 107, then it is represented as the integer part of m, in decimal form with no leading zeroes, followed by '.' ('\u002E'), followed by one or more decimal digits representing the fractional part of m.
    • If m is less than 10-3 or greater than or equal to 107, then it is represented in so-called "computerized scientific notation." Let n be the unique integer such that 10n <= m < 10n+1; then let a be the mathematically exact quotient of m and 10n so that 1 <= a < 10. The magnitude is then represented as the integer part of a, as a single decimal digit, followed by '.' ('\u002E'), followed by decimal digits representing the fractional part of a, followed by the letter 'E' ('\u0045'), followed by a representation of n as a decimal integer, as produced by the method {@link java.lang.Integer#toString(int)}.
How many digits must be printed for the fractional part of m or a? There must be at least one digit to represent the fractional part, and beyond that as many, but only as many, more digits as are needed to uniquely distinguish the argument value from adjacent values of type float. That is, suppose that x is the exact mathematical value represented by the decimal representation produced by this method for a finite nonzero argument f. Then f must be the float value nearest to x; or, if two float values are equally close to x, then f must be one of them and the least significant bit of the significand of f must be 0.

To create localized string representations of a floating-point value, use subclasses of {@link java.text.NumberFormat}.

param
f the float to be converted.
return
a string representation of the argument.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
         
	return new FloatingDecimal(f).toJavaFormatString();
    
public java.lang.StringtoString()
Returns a string representation of this Float object. The primitive float value represented by this object is converted to a String exactly as if by the method toString of one argument.

return
a String representation of this object.
see
java.lang.Float#toString(float)

	return String.valueOf(value);
    
public static java.lang.FloatvalueOf(java.lang.String s)
Returns a Float object holding the float value represented by the argument string s.

If s is null, then a NullPointerException is thrown.

Leading and trailing whitespace characters in s are ignored. Whitespace is removed as if by the {@link String#trim} method; that is, both ASCII space and control characters are removed. The rest of s should constitute a FloatValue as described by the lexical syntax rules:

FloatValue:
Signopt NaN
Signopt Infinity
Signopt FloatingPointLiteral
Signopt HexFloatingPointLiteral
SignedInteger

HexFloatingPointLiteral:
HexSignificand BinaryExponent FloatTypeSuffixopt

HexSignificand:
HexNumeral
HexNumeral .
0x HexDigitsopt . HexDigits
0X HexDigitsopt . HexDigits

BinaryExponent:
BinaryExponentIndicator SignedInteger

BinaryExponentIndicator:
p
P
where Sign, FloatingPointLiteral, HexNumeral, HexDigits, SignedInteger and FloatTypeSuffix are as defined in the lexical structure sections of the of the Java Language Specification. If s does not have the form of a FloatValue, then a NumberFormatException is thrown. Otherwise, s is regarded as representing an exact decimal value in the usual "computerized scientific notation" or as an exact hexadecimal value; this exact numerical value is then conceptually converted to an "infinitely precise" binary value that is then rounded to type float by the usual round-to-nearest rule of IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic, which includes preserving the sign of a zero value. Finally, a Float object representing this float value is returned.

To interpret localized string representations of a floating-point value, use subclasses of {@link java.text.NumberFormat}.

Note that trailing format specifiers, specifiers that determine the type of a floating-point literal (1.0f is a float value; 1.0d is a double value), do not influence the results of this method. In other words, the numerical value of the input string is converted directly to the target floating-point type. In general, the two-step sequence of conversions, string to double followed by double to float, is not equivalent to converting a string directly to float. For example, if first converted to an intermediate double and then to float, the string
"1.00000017881393421514957253748434595763683319091796875001d"
results in the float value 1.0000002f; if the string is converted directly to float, 1.0000001f results.

To avoid calling this method on a invalid string and having a NumberFormatException be thrown, the documentation for {@link Double#valueOf Double.valueOf} lists a regular expression which can be used to screen the input.

param
s the string to be parsed.
return
a Float object holding the value represented by the String argument.
exception
NumberFormatException if the string does not contain a parsable number.

	return new Float(FloatingDecimal.readJavaFormatString(s).floatValue());
    
public static java.lang.FloatvalueOf(float f)
Returns a Float instance representing the specified float value. If a new Float instance is not required, this method should generally be used in preference to the constructor {@link #Float(float)}, as this method is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance by caching frequently requested values.

param
f a float value.
return
a Float instance representing f.
since
1.5

        return new Float(f);