Question

I’m trying to parse and add 2 numbers together where I don’t know which type they are (int, float, etc.), and I’m trying to store the result in the most appropriate type. For instance, if I get 2 ints, I want the result to be an int, but if I get an int and a double, I want the result to be a double. How would I go about doing this?

One idea that I had was to try parsing as an int first, then long, then float, … to see which type it was. Is there a better way to do this rather than trying/catching the NumberFormatExceptions?

Ex:

String number1 = "5";
String number2 = "3.4";

Object answer = add(number1, number2);

What would add() look like?

Answer 1

I would read the all as a double, or a BigDecimal. This will be simpler and possibly more efficient than trying to find the “optimal” type.