Comparing BigDecimals

The method compareTo should be used to compare BigDecimals:

BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal(5);
a.compareTo(new BigDecimal(0));    // a is greater, returns 1
a.compareTo(new BigDecimal(5));    // a is equal, returns 0
a.compareTo(new BigDecimal(10));   // a is less, returns -1

Commonly you should not use the equals method since it considers two BigDecimals equal only if they are equal in value and also scale:

BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal(5);
a.equals(new BigDecimal(5));       // value and scale are equal, returns true
a.equals(new BigDecimal(5.00));    // value is equal but scale is not, returns false

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