double, BigDecimal, or Fixed-Point?

This article dives into the ongoing debate in Java about choosing between double, BigDecimal, and fixed-point arithmetic for financial and precision-sensitive calculations. It explains IEEE 754 binary representation, why double can be imprecise for decimal values, and the pitfalls of naive equality checks. The article covers BigDecimal's performance and rounding issues, fixed-point alternatives, and production concerns like serialization, testing, and concurrency. It provides practical code examples and guidance on selecting the right numeric type based on precision needs, rounding rules, and performance budgets, making it a valuable resource for Java developers dealing with numeric computations.