In an Informix database I have a decimal(16,4) column with a value of 99.9991. After hydrating an object pointing to this row, the BigDecimal has a value of 99.9990999999999985448084771633148193359375

I've set the column type="big_decimal" but the behavior remains the same.

What other things should I look for?

Thanks,
Jay

Hi Jay

Looks like your value has been converted to a double at some point.

Compare the following:

System.out.println(new BigDecimal(99.9991)); // converted to double value
99.9990999999999985448084771633148193359375
- converted to a double before becoming a BD
- same value as you're seeing

System.out.println(new BigDecimal("99.9991")); // quoted value converted by BD
99.9991
- straight BD conversion from string

Your database column has 16,4 precision/scale so the conversion must be occuring after you read the data back from the DB. In my test, trying to store new BigDecimal(99.9991) (i.e. initialised with double) into a a 16,4 fails with a data truncation exception.

Do you retieve the data from DB as a double then convert it to a BD?

Mike

First, thanks for the reply.

Next, "no", the BigDecimal variable is mapped directly to the database column and populated by Hibernate.

I agree in your assessment that it's being converted to a double at some point, but not sure where to track it down.

Thanks again.

If you can narrow this down and post a simple test case it will definitely help identify the problem - e.g. a very basic persisted pojo and mapping file (or annotations) with a single BigDecimal property that fails in the same way when reading back the stored value 99.9991.

Don't know much about informix but with both MYSQL and HSQLDB I stored a BigDecimal value of 99.9991 in a 16,4 column and it re-hydrated to the same value;

Mike

Turns out the problem was related to a faulty test case initializing a BigDecimal with a double. These problems tend to be of the user error variety. Thanks for your help.