How can I divide properly using BigDecimal

Question

My code sample:

import java.math.*;   public class x {   public static void main(String[] args)   {     BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal("1");     BigDecimal b = new BigDecimal("3");     BigDecimal c = a.divide(b, BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP);     System.out.println(a+"/"+b+" = "+c);   } } 

The result is: 1/3 = 0

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You haven't specified a scale for the result. Please try this

2019 Edit: Updated answer for JDK 13. Cause hopefully you've migrated off of JDK 1.5 by now.

import java.math.BigDecimal; import java.math.RoundingMode;  public class Main {      public static void main(String[] args) {         BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal("1");         BigDecimal b = new BigDecimal("3");         BigDecimal c = a.divide(b, 2, RoundingMode.HALF_UP);         System.out.println(a + "/" + b + " = " + c);     }  } 

Please read JDK 13 documentation.

Old answer for JDK 1.5 :

import java.math.*;       public class x     {       public static void main(String[] args)       {         BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal("1");         BigDecimal b = new BigDecimal("3");         BigDecimal c = a.divide(b,2, BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP);         System.out.println(a+"/"+b+" = "+c);       }     } 

this will give the result as 0.33. Please read the API