INT03-J. Do not cast numeric types to wider floating-point types without range checking

Narrower primitive types can be cast to wider types without affecting the magnitude of numeric values. However, when the expressions are not strictfp (FLP04-J. Use the strictfp modifier for floating point calculation consistency), conversions from float to double may lose information about the overall magnitude of the converted value (see JLS Section 5.1.2, Widening Primitive Conversion).

Conversion from int or long to float, or long to double can lead to loss of precision (loss of least significant bits). No runtime exception occurs despite this loss. Also, see EXP05-J. Be aware of integer promotions in binary operators.

Noncompliant Code Example

In this noncompliant code example, a value of type int is converted to the type float. Because a floating point number cannot be precise to 9 digits, the result of subtracting the original from this value is non-zero.

class WideSample {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    int big = 1234567890;
    float approx = big;
    System.out.println(big - (int)approx);  // This is expected to be zero but it prints -46
  }
}

Compliant Solution

The significand part of a floating point number can hold at most 23 bit values. Anything above this threshold is discarded because of precision loss, as demonstrated in this compliant solution.

class WideSample {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    int big = 1234567890;
                  
    // The significand can store at most 23 bits
    if(Integer.highestOneBit(big) > Math.pow(2, 23)) { 
      throw new ArithmeticException("Insufficient precision");	
    }

    float approx = big;
    System.out.println(big - (int)approx);  // Prints zero when no precision is lost
  }
}