float is a frequently used data type of 32-bit and it represents decimal numbers. The main difference from double is that it requires smaller size in memory but in some situations (big numbers) doesn’t represent the accurate number. A commonly used procedure in Java is the convertion from string to float.
In this example we shall show you all the possible ways of converting a String to Float in Java.
1. Syntax of the convert operations
There are tree manners to convert a string to float.
Float(String s): use ofFloatconstructor wheresrepresents the parsing string.public static float parseFloat(String s): returns a new signed float that is represented by the specified strings.public static Float valueOf(String s): returns aFloatobject that includes the float value, which has been converted by the given strings.
In is good to mention that both parseFloat() and valueOf() operations throw NumberFormatException and NullPointerException. NumberFormatException is thrown if the string can not be converted to a float number, while NullPointerException is thrown when the string is null.
2. Example of String to Float conversion
Create a new java file with the name StringToFloatClass and paste the following code.
StringToFloatClass.java:
package com.javacodegeeks.basics.stringtofloat;
public class StringToFloatClass {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s1 = "1.23456f";
String s2 = "-2";
try {
// use of constructor
Float f1 = new Float("0.123456789012");
System.out.println("f1 = "+f1.floatValue());
float f2 = Float.valueOf(s1).floatValue();
System.out.println("f2 = "+f2);
// use of signed number
float f3 = Float.parseFloat(s2);
System.out.println("f3 = "+f3);
// parseFloat and valueOf operations return the same result value
float f4 = Float.parseFloat(s1);
System.out.println("Comparing f2=f4: result = "+(f2==f4));
} catch(NumberFormatException ex) {
System.err.println("NumberFormatException "+ ex.getMessage());
} catch(NullPointerException ex) {
System.err.println("NullPointerException "+ ex.getMessage());
}
}
}
Now lets explain the code above. Firstly we use the Float constructor in order to create a float, based on a string. The number is big so, as you can notice in the output below, f1 doesn’t contain the precise value. As we mentioned, valueOf() method returns a Float object so floatValue() is called in order to transform it into a float. In addition, we can convert a string that represents a signed integer number to a float. Finally, we can easily note that parseFloat() and valueOf() operations return the same float value.
Now you can see below the result of the execution.
Output:
f1 = 0.12345679 f2 = 1.23456 f3 = -2.0 Comparing f2=f4: result = true
Download the source code
This was an example of string to float in Java. Download the source code of this example: StringToFloatExample.zip
