Forcing BigDecimals to use scientific notation

Question

I have this method:

    public void Example(BigDecimal value, int scale){
    BigDecimal x = new BigDecimal(\"0.00001\");
    System.out.println(\"result: \"         


        

Answer 1

Here is a version of DannyMo's answer that sets the scale automatically:

private static String format(BigDecimal x)
{
    NumberFormat formatter = new DecimalFormat("0.0E0");
    formatter.setRoundingMode(RoundingMode.HALF_UP);
    formatter.setMinimumFractionDigits((x.scale() > 0) ? x.precision() : x.scale());
    return formatter.format(x);
}

System.out.println(format(new BigDecimal("0.01")));   // 1.0E-2
System.out.println(format(new BigDecimal("0.001")));  // 1.0E-3
System.out.println(format(new BigDecimal("500")));    // 5E2
System.out.println(format(new BigDecimal("500.05"))); // 5.00050E2