How to evaluate a math expression given in string

Question

I'm trying to write a Java routine to evaluate simple math expressions from String values like:

1. "5+3"
2. "10-40"
3. "10*3"

I want to avoid a lot of if-then-else statements. How can I do this?

Answer 1

This article points to 3 different approaches, one which is JEXL from Apache and allows for scripts that include references to java objects.

Answer 2

HERE is another open source library on GitHub named EvalEx.

Unlike the JavaScript engine this library is focused in evaluating mathematical expressions only. Moreover, the library is extensible and supports use of boolean operators as well as parentheses.

Answer 3

External library like RHINO or NASHORN can be used to run javascript. And javascript can evaluate simple formula without parcing the string. No performance impact as well if code is written well. Below is an example with RHINO -

public class RhinoApp {
    private String simpleAdd = "(12+13+2-2)*2+(12+13+2-2)*2";

public void runJavaScript() {
    Context jsCx = Context.enter();
    Context.getCurrentContext().setOptimizationLevel(-1);
    ScriptableObject scope = jsCx.initStandardObjects();
    Object result = jsCx.evaluateString(scope, simpleAdd , "formula", 0, null);
    Context.exit();
    System.out.println(result);
}

Answer 4

You can evaluate expressions easily if your Java application already accesses a database, without using any other JARs.

Some databases require you to use a dummy table (eg, Oracle's "dual" table) and others will allow you to evaluate expressions without "selecting" from any table.

For example, in Sql Server or Sqlite

select (((12.10 +12.0))/ 233.0) amount

and in Oracle

select (((12.10 +12.0))/ 233.0) amount from dual;

The advantage of using a DB is that you can evaluate many expressions at the same time. Also most DB's will allow you to use highly complex expressions and will also have a number of extra functions that can be called as necessary.

However performance may suffer if many single expressions need to be evaluated individually, particularly when the DB is located on a network server.

The following addresses the performance problem to some extent, by using a Sqlite in-memory database.

Here's a full working example in Java

Class. forName("org.sqlite.JDBC");
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:sqlite::memory:");
Statement stat = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stat.executeQuery( "select (1+10)/20.0 amount");
rs.next();
System.out.println(rs.getBigDecimal(1));
stat.close();
conn.close();

Of course you could extend the above code to handle multiple calculations at the same time.

ResultSet rs = stat.executeQuery( "select (1+10)/20.0 amount, (1+100)/20.0 amount2");

Answer 5

For my university project, I was looking for a parser / evaluator supporting both basic formulas and more complicated equations (especially iterated operators). I found very nice open source library for JAVA and .NET called mXparser. I will give a few examples to make some feeling on the syntax, for further instructions please visit project website (especially tutorial section).

http://mathparser.org/

http://mathparser.org/mxparser-tutorial/

http://mathparser.org/api/

And few examples

1 - Simple furmula

Expression e = new Expression("( 2 + 3/4 + sin(pi) )/2");
double v = e.calculate()

2 - User defined arguments and constants

Argument x = new Argument("x = 10");
Constant a = new Constant("a = pi^2");
Expression e = new Expression("cos(a*x)", x, a);
double v = e.calculate()

3 - User defined functions

Function f = new Function("f(x, y, z) = sin(x) + cos(y*z)");
Expression e = new Expression("f(3,2,5)", f);
double v = e.calculate()

4 - Iteration

Expression e = new Expression("sum( i, 1, 100, sin(i) )");
double v = e.calculate()

Best regards

Answer 6

package ExpressionCalculator.expressioncalculator;

import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class ExpressionCalculator {

private static String addSpaces(String exp){

    //Add space padding to operands.
    //https://regex101.com/r/sJ9gM7/73
    exp = exp.replaceAll("(?<=[0-9()])[\\/]", " / ");
    exp = exp.replaceAll("(?<=[0-9()])[\\^]", " ^ ");
    exp = exp.replaceAll("(?<=[0-9()])[\\*]", " * ");
    exp = exp.replaceAll("(?<=[0-9()])[+]", " + "); 
    exp = exp.replaceAll("(?<=[0-9()])[-]", " - ");

    //Keep replacing double spaces with single spaces until your string is properly formatted
    /*while(exp.indexOf("  ") != -1){
        exp = exp.replace("  ", " ");
     }*/
    exp = exp.replaceAll(" {2,}", " ");

       return exp;
}

public static Double evaluate(String expr){

    DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("#.####");

    //Format the expression properly before performing operations
    String expression = addSpaces(expr);

    try {
        //We will evaluate using rule BDMAS, i.e. brackets, division, power, multiplication, addition and
        //subtraction will be processed in following order
        int indexClose = expression.indexOf(")");
        int indexOpen = -1;
        if (indexClose != -1) {
            String substring = expression.substring(0, indexClose);
            indexOpen = substring.lastIndexOf("(");
            substring = substring.substring(indexOpen + 1).trim();
            if(indexOpen != -1 && indexClose != -1) {
                Double result = evaluate(substring);
                expression = expression.substring(0, indexOpen).trim() + " " + result + " " + expression.substring(indexClose + 1).trim();
                return evaluate(expression.trim());
            }
        }

        String operation = "";
        if(expression.indexOf(" / ") != -1){
            operation = "/";
        }else if(expression.indexOf(" ^ ") != -1){
            operation = "^";
        } else if(expression.indexOf(" * ") != -1){
            operation = "*";
        } else if(expression.indexOf(" + ") != -1){
            operation = "+";
        } else if(expression.indexOf(" - ") != -1){ //Avoid negative numbers
            operation = "-";
        } else{
            return Double.parseDouble(expression);
        }

        int index = expression.indexOf(operation);
        if(index != -1){
            indexOpen = expression.lastIndexOf(" ", index - 2);
            indexOpen = (indexOpen == -1)?0:indexOpen;
            indexClose = expression.indexOf(" ", index + 2);
            indexClose = (indexClose == -1)?expression.length():indexClose;
            if(indexOpen != -1 && indexClose != -1) {
                Double lhs = Double.parseDouble(expression.substring(indexOpen, index));
                Double rhs = Double.parseDouble(expression.substring(index + 2, indexClose));
                Double result = null;
                switch (operation){
                    case "/":
                        //Prevent divide by 0 exception.
                        if(rhs == 0){
                            return null;
                        }
                        result = lhs / rhs;
                        break;
                    case "^":
                        result = Math.pow(lhs, rhs);
                        break;
                    case "*":
                        result = lhs * rhs;
                        break;
                    case "-":
                        result = lhs - rhs;
                        break;
                    case "+":
                        result = lhs + rhs;
                        break;
                    default:
                        break;
                }
                if(indexClose == expression.length()){
                    expression = expression.substring(0, indexOpen) + " " + result + " " + expression.substring(indexClose);
                }else{
                    expression = expression.substring(0, indexOpen) + " " + result + " " + expression.substring(indexClose + 1);
                }
                return Double.valueOf(df.format(evaluate(expression.trim())));
            }
        }
    }catch(Exception exp){
        exp.printStackTrace();
    }
    return 0.0;
}

public static void main(String args[]){

    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Enter an Mathematical Expression to Evaluate: ");
    String input = scanner.nextLine();
    System.out.println(evaluate(input));
}

}