Mathematical integrity of NSDecimalNumber - ios

Question

I'm using numbers divided by 10^30
I may be adding values like 1000000000000000 and 5000000000000000 stored in NSDecimalNumbers.
My concern is that I think I've seen a few times, when adding or subtracting these values, incorrect math being done.
Is that a possibility or are NSDecimalNumbers pretty sound in terms of the integrity of their math.

Answer 1

In answer to your question, the math offered by Decimal/NSDecimalNumber is sound, and the problem probably rests in either:
The calculations might exceed the capacity of these decimal formats (as outlined by rob mayoff). For example, this works because we're within the 38 digit mantissa:
let x = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 60, significand: 1)
let y = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 30, significand: 1)
let z = x + y
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
But this will not:
let x = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 60, significand: 1)
let y = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 10, significand: 1)
let z = x + y
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Or, it could just be how you are instantiating these decimal values, e.g. supplying a floating point number rather than using the Decimal(sign:exponent:significand:) or NSDecimalNumber(mantissa:exponent:isNegative:) initializers:
For example, this works fine:
let formatter = NumberFormatter()
formatter.numberStyle = .decimal
let x = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 30, significand: 1)
print(formatter.string(for: x)!)
That results in:
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
But these won't, because you're supplying a floating point number which suffers lower limits in precision:
let y = Decimal(1.0e30)
print(formatter.string(for: y)!)
let z = Decimal(1_000_000_000_000_000_000_000_000_000_000.0)
print(formatter.string(for: z)!)
These both result in:
1,000,000,000,000,000,409,600,000,000,000
For more information on floating-point arithmetic (and why certainly decimal numbers cannot be perfectly captured in floating-point types), see floating-point arithmetic.
In your other question, you ask why the following:
let foo = NSDecimalNumber(value: 334.99999).multiplying(byPowerOf10: 30)
produced:
334999990000000051200000000000000
This is the same underlying issue that I outlined above in point 2. Floating point numbers cannot accurately represent certain decimal values.
Note, your question is the same as the following Decimal rendition:
let adjustment = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: 30, significand: 1)
let foo = Decimal(334.99999) * adjustment
This also produces:
334999990000000051200000000000000
But you will get the desired result if you supply either a string or a exponent and mantissa/significant, because these will be accurately represented as a Decimal/NSDecimalNumber:
let bar = Decimal(string: "334.99999")! * adjustment
let baz = Decimal(sign: .plus, exponent: -5, significand: 33499999) * adjustment
Those both produce:
334999990000000000000000000000000
Bottom line, do not supply floating point numbers to Decimal or NSDecimalNumber. Use string representations or use the exponent and mantissa/significand representation and you will not see these strange deviations introduced when using floating point numbers.

Answer 2

I'm using numbers divided by 1^30
Good news, then, because 1^30 = 1. Perhaps you meant 10^30?
Anyway, according to the NSDecimalNumber class reference:
An instance can represent any number that can be expressed as mantissa x 10^exponent where mantissa is a decimal integer up to 38 digits long, and exponent is an integer from –128 through 127.