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Why doesn't Java's BigInteger class have a constructor capable of taking a numeric literal? Every single time I use BigIntegers, and many times I merely think about them, I wonder this.

What reason could the designers of java have had to exclude one despite the overwhelming convenience of one should it exist?

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Because you can easily call toString on an integral type? And doing so would require multiple overloads - one per integral type. – Oded♦ Oct 29 '12 at 19:50
I think one constructor taking a long would suffice, since a numeric literal can automatically cast to a long. Java will let you cast a type to a more precise (not efficient, derp) type implicitly. It kind of makes sense for people who want to build one from a floating point type to have to at least cast it, but I don't see why we force people who want to make a biginteger with a value of 3 suffer. – Wug Oct 29 '12 at 19:52
@kevincline: I'm not saying remove the string constructor, I'm asking why there isn't a long one. – Wug Oct 29 '12 at 19:55

closed as not constructive by Robert Harvey, kevin cline, Walter, GlenH7, ElYusubov Oct 29 '12 at 23:00

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1 Answer

up vote 11 down vote

The answer lies in the JavaDoc of BigInteger.valueOf(long):

This "static factory method" is provided in preference to a (long) constructor because it allows for reuse of frequently used BigIntegers.

In other words: BigInteger.valueOf(long) does exactly what you ask the hypothetical BigInteger(long) constructor to do, except it is (or at least can be) slightly more efficient at it.

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2  
Excellent. Have some precious Internet reps. +1 – Robert Harvey Oct 29 '12 at 20:25

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