double, BigDecimal, or Fixed-Point? Precision, Performance, and Sane Choices for Numbers in Java

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 07:38:07 +0000

There is an evergreen debate in the Java world: Should you always use MARKDOWN_HASHeb731dbabfc7392f8ad8c1cdb326a26aMARKDOWNHASH for money?

The short answer is no . The real answer is: it depends on your computational context: the precision you need, the rounding rules you must follow, and the performance budget you have.

The problem is that this conversation is often driven by dogma rather than engineering. You hear statements like “double is broken,” “BigDecimal is slow,” “always use fixed-point,” or “always use IEEE 754,” each treated as an absolute truth. Reality is more nuanced and more interesting.

Clean your Memory: From Finalize to Cleaner

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:30:08 +0000

Garbage collection in Java takes care of memory management, but it does not clean up non-memory resources like sockets or file handles.

Resource leaks may occur without proper management, leading to performance degradation or crashes.

Java’s Cleaner API , introduced in Java 9, provides a modern and efficient mechanism for resource cleanup when objects are no longer reachable.

It addresses the shortcomings of the deprecated finalize() method, offering a predictable and efficient way to manage non-memory resources: so let’s take a short trip on clean memory from finalize to Cleaner API.

Stefano Fago on foojay.io - Friends of OpenJDK

double, BigDecimal, or Fixed-Point? Precision, Performance, and Sane Choices for Numbers in Java

Clean your Memory: From Finalize to Cleaner