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

How about something like this:

String st = "10+3";
int result;
for(int i=0;i<st.length();i++)
{
  if(st.charAt(i)=='+')
  {
    result=Integer.parseInt(st.substring(0, i))+Integer.parseInt(st.substring(i+1, st.length()));
    System.out.print(result);
  }         
}

and do the similar thing for every other mathematical operator accordingly ..

Answer 2

This is actually complementing the answer given by @Boann. It has a slight bug which causes "-2 ^ 2" to give an erroneous result of -4.0. The problem for that is the point at which the exponentiation is evaluated in his. Just move the exponentiation to the block of parseTerm(), and you'll be all fine. Have a look at the below, which is @Boann's answer slightly modified. Modification is in the comments.

public static double eval(final String str) {
    return new Object() {
        int pos = -1, ch;

        void nextChar() {
            ch = (++pos < str.length()) ? str.charAt(pos) : -1;
        }

        boolean eat(int charToEat) {
            while (ch == ' ') nextChar();
            if (ch == charToEat) {
                nextChar();
                return true;
            }
            return false;
        }

        double parse() {
            nextChar();
            double x = parseExpression();
            if (pos < str.length()) throw new RuntimeException("Unexpected: " + (char)ch);
            return x;
        }

        // Grammar:
        // expression = term | expression `+` term | expression `-` term
        // term = factor | term `*` factor | term `/` factor
        // factor = `+` factor | `-` factor | `(` expression `)`
        //        | number | functionName factor | factor `^` factor

        double parseExpression() {
            double x = parseTerm();
            for (;;) {
                if      (eat('+')) x += parseTerm(); // addition
                else if (eat('-')) x -= parseTerm(); // subtraction
                else return x;
            }
        }

        double parseTerm() {
            double x = parseFactor();
            for (;;) {
                if      (eat('*')) x *= parseFactor(); // multiplication
                else if (eat('/')) x /= parseFactor(); // division
                else if (eat('^')) x = Math.pow(x, parseFactor()); //exponentiation -> Moved in to here. So the problem is fixed
                else return x;
            }
        }

        double parseFactor() {
            if (eat('+')) return parseFactor(); // unary plus
            if (eat('-')) return -parseFactor(); // unary minus

            double x;
            int startPos = this.pos;
            if (eat('(')) { // parentheses
                x = parseExpression();
                eat(')');
            } else if ((ch >= '0' && ch <= '9') || ch == '.') { // numbers
                while ((ch >= '0' && ch <= '9') || ch == '.') nextChar();
                x = Double.parseDouble(str.substring(startPos, this.pos));
            } else if (ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z') { // functions
                while (ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z') nextChar();
                String func = str.substring(startPos, this.pos);
                x = parseFactor();
                if (func.equals("sqrt")) x = Math.sqrt(x);
                else if (func.equals("sin")) x = Math.sin(Math.toRadians(x));
                else if (func.equals("cos")) x = Math.cos(Math.toRadians(x));
                else if (func.equals("tan")) x = Math.tan(Math.toRadians(x));
                else throw new RuntimeException("Unknown function: " + func);
            } else {
                throw new RuntimeException("Unexpected: " + (char)ch);
            }

            //if (eat('^')) x = Math.pow(x, parseFactor()); // exponentiation -> This is causing a bit of problem

            return x;
        }
    }.parse();
}

Answer 3

You might have a look at the Symja framework:

ExprEvaluator util = new ExprEvaluator(); 
IExpr result = util.evaluate("10-40");
System.out.println(result.toString()); // -> "-30" 

Take note that definitively more complex expressions can be evaluated:

// D(...) gives the derivative of the function Sin(x)*Cos(x)
IAST function = D(Times(Sin(x), Cos(x)), x);
IExpr result = util.evaluate(function);
// print: Cos(x)^2-Sin(x)^2

Answer 4

It's too late to answer but I came across same situation to evaluate expression in java, it might help someone

MVEL does runtime evaluation of expressions, we can write a java code in String to get it evaluated in this.

    String expressionStr = "x+y";
    Map<String, Object> vars = new HashMap<String, Object>();
    vars.put("x", 10);
    vars.put("y", 20);
    ExecutableStatement statement = (ExecutableStatement) MVEL.compileExpression(expressionStr);
    Object result = MVEL.executeExpression(statement, vars);

Answer 5

I think what ever way you do this it's going to involve a lot of conditional statements. But for single operations like in your examples you could limit it to 4 if statements with something like

String math = "1+4";

if (math.split("+").length == 2) {
    //do calculation
} else if (math.split("-").length == 2) {
    //do calculation
} ...

It gets a whole lot more complicated when you want to deal with multiple operations like "4+5*6".

If you are trying to build a calculator then I'd surgest passing each section of the calculation separatly (each number or operator) rather than as a single string.

Answer 6

Yet another option: https://github.com/stefanhaustein/expressionparser

I have implemented this to have a simple but flexible option to permit both:

• Immediate processing (Calculator.java, SetDemo.java)
• Building and processing a parse tree (TreeBuilder.java)

The TreeBuilder linked above is part of a CAS demo package that does symbolic derivation. There is also a BASIC interpreter example and I have started to build a TypeScript interpreter using it.