Comparing the values of two generic Numbers

Question

I want to compare to variables, both of type T extends Number. Now I want to know which of the two variables is greater than the other or equal. Unfortunately I

Answer 1

After having asked a similar question and studying the answers here, I came up with the following. I think it is more efficient and more robust than the solution given by gustafc:

public int compare(Number x, Number y) {
    if(isSpecial(x) || isSpecial(y))
        return Double.compare(x.doubleValue(), y.doubleValue());
    else
        return toBigDecimal(x).compareTo(toBigDecimal(y));
}

private static boolean isSpecial(Number x) {
    boolean specialDouble = x instanceof Double
            && (Double.isNaN((Double) x) || Double.isInfinite((Double) x));
    boolean specialFloat = x instanceof Float
            && (Float.isNaN((Float) x) || Float.isInfinite((Float) x));
    return specialDouble || specialFloat;
}

private static BigDecimal toBigDecimal(Number number) {
    if(number instanceof BigDecimal)
        return (BigDecimal) number;
    if(number instanceof BigInteger)
        return new BigDecimal((BigInteger) number);
    if(number instanceof Byte || number instanceof Short
            || number instanceof Integer || number instanceof Long)
        return new BigDecimal(number.longValue());
    if(number instanceof Float || number instanceof Double)
        return new BigDecimal(number.doubleValue());

    try {
        return new BigDecimal(number.toString());
    } catch(final NumberFormatException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("The given number (\"" + number + "\" of class " + number.getClass().getName() + ") does not have a parsable string representation", e);
    }
}