Java: Double Value Comparison

Question

Do we need to be careful when comparing a double value against zero?

if ( someAmount <= 0){
.....
}

Answer 1

If you want to be really careful you can test whether it is within some epsilon of zero with something like

double epsilon = 0.0000001;
if      ( f <= ( 0 - epsilon ) ) { .. }
else if ( f >= ( 0 + epsilon ) ) { .. }
else { /* f "equals" zero */ }

Or you can simply round your doubles to some specified precision before branching on them.

For some interesting details about comparing error in floating point numbers, here is an article by Bruce Dawson.