How to divide NSDecimalNumber by integer? - ios

Question

I don't think a comprehensive, basic answer to this exists here yet, and googling didn't help.
Task: Given an NSDecimalNumber divide this by an int and return another NSDecimalNumber.
Clarification: amount_text below must be converted to a NSDecimalNumber because it is a currency. The result must be a NSDecimalNumber, but I don't care what format the divisor is.
What I have so far:
// Inputs
NSString *amount_text = #"15.3";
int n = 10;
NSDecimalNumber *total = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:amount_text];
// Take int, convert to string. Take string, convert to NSDecimalNumber.
NSString *int_string = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", n];
NSDecimalNumber *divisor = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:int_string];
NSDecimalNumber *contribution = [total decimalNumberByDividingBy:divisor];
Surely, this can be done in a more straightforward way?

Answer 1

Is there any reason why you're using NSDecimalNumber? This can be done way easier like this:
// Inputs
NSString *amount_text = #"15.3";
int n = 10;
float amount = [amount_text floatValue];
float result = amount / n;
If you really want to do it with NSDecimalNumber:
// Inputs
NSString *amount_text = #"15.3";
int n = 10;
NSDecimalNumber *total = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:amount_text];
NSDecimalNumber *divisor = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithMantissa:n exponent:0 isNegative:NO];
NSDecimalNumber *contribution = [total decimalNumberByDividingBy:divisor];

Answer 2

You can always use initialisers when creating NSDecimalNumber. Since it is a subclass of NSNumber, NSDecimalNumber overrides initialisers.
So you can do
NSDecimalNumber *decimalNumber = [[NSDecimalNumber alloc] initWithInt:10];
however, you should be careful if your are doing high precision calculations as there are some problems using these initialisers. You can read about it here in more detail.

Answer 3

Alternatively (potentially losing some precision):
double amount = 15.3;
double n = 10.0;
double contribution = amount / n;
// conversion to decimal
NSString *string = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%f", n];
NSDecimalNumber *contribution_dec = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:string];
better yet (if n=10):
[dec decimalNumberByMultiplyingByPowerOf10:-1];

Answer 4

As per your code...
You are creating an NSDecimalNumber from string and then doing manipulations with it.
I never do that. Unless you need NSDecimalNumber unless you want a boxed Objective-C Object, Avoid it, use float and double.
If you want to do it much simpler you can do it as:
float quotient = [total floatValue]/n;
or,
float quotient = [contribution floatValue]/n;
EDIT: If you want with any specific reason to use boxed type then you can use as:
NSString *amount_text = #"15.3";
int n = 10;
NSDecimalNumber *total = [NSDecimalNumber decimalNumberWithString:amount_text];
NSDecimalNumber *divisor = [[NSDecimalNumber alloc] initWithInt:n];
NSDecimalNumber *contribution = [total decimalNumberByDividingBy:divisor];