Question

Is there a native way (preferably without implementing your own method) to check that a string is parseable with Double.parseDouble()?

Answer 1

The common approach would be to check it with a regular expression like it’s also suggested inside the Double.valueOf(String) documentation.

The regexp provided there (or included below) should cover all valid floating point cases, so you don’t need to fiddle with it, since you will eventually miss out on some of the finer points.

If you don’t want to do that, try catch is still an option.

The regexp suggested by the JavaDoc is included below:

final String Digits     = "(\\p{Digit}+)";
final String HexDigits  = "(\\p{XDigit}+)";
// an exponent is 'e' or 'E' followed by an optionally 
// signed decimal integer.
final String Exp        = "[eE][+-]?"+Digits;
final String fpRegex    =
    ("[\\x00-\\x20]*"+ // Optional leading "whitespace"
    "[+-]?(" +         // Optional sign character
    "NaN|" +           // "NaN" string
    "Infinity|" +      // "Infinity" string

    // A decimal floating-point string representing a finite positive
    // number without a leading sign has at most five basic pieces:
    // Digits . Digits ExponentPart FloatTypeSuffix
    // 
    // Since this method allows integer-only strings as input
    // in addition to strings of floating-point literals, the
    // two sub-patterns below are simplifications of the grammar
    // productions from the Java Language Specification, 2nd 
    // edition, section 3.10.2.

    // Digits ._opt Digits_opt ExponentPart_opt FloatTypeSuffix_opt
    "((("+Digits+"(\\.)?("+Digits+"?)("+Exp+")?)|"+

    // . Digits ExponentPart_opt FloatTypeSuffix_opt
    "(\\.("+Digits+")("+Exp+")?)|"+

    // Hexadecimal strings
    "((" +
    // 0[xX] HexDigits ._opt BinaryExponent FloatTypeSuffix_opt
    "(0[xX]" + HexDigits + "(\\.)?)|" +

    // 0[xX] HexDigits_opt . HexDigits BinaryExponent FloatTypeSuffix_opt
    "(0[xX]" + HexDigits + "?(\\.)" + HexDigits + ")" +

    ")[pP][+-]?" + Digits + "))" +
    "[fFdD]?))" +
    "[\\x00-\\x20]*");// Optional trailing "whitespace"

if (Pattern.matches(fpRegex, myString)){
    Double.valueOf(myString); // Will not throw NumberFormatException
} else {
    // Perform suitable alternative action
}