Calculating Pi with Android

Question

I'm kind of new to Java but I am writing an Android app. Right now I'm working on an async task to calculate Pi but when I run it the memory usage increases alarmingly (+5MB per second). This one piece of code may need to run thousands of times so it is important that it be very optimized.

protected BigDecimal doInBackground(Object... params) {
        digits = (int)params[0];
        piView = (TextView)params[1];
        boolean add = true;
        BigDecimal pi = new BigDecimal(0.0);
        for(int i=1; pi.setScale(digits, BigDecimal.ROUND_DOWN).equals(realPi) == false; i++){
            if(add){
                pi = pi.add(new BigDecimal(4.0 / (-1 + (i*2))));
                add = false;
            }
            else {
                pi = pi.subtract(new BigDecimal(4.0 / (-1 + (i*2))));
                add = true;
            }
        }
        return pi;
    }

This one piece of code may need to run thousands of times so it is important that it be very optimized.

Answer 1

    boolean add = true;
    for(int i=1; pi.setScale(digits, BigDecimal.ROUND_DOWN).equals(realPi) == false; i++){
        if(add){
            pi = pi.add(new BigDecimal(4.0 / (-1 + (i*2))));
            add = false;
        }
        else {
            pi = pi.subtract(new BigDecimal(4.0 / (-1 + (i*2))));
            add = true;
        }
    }

You don't need an add variable. Consider

    int i = 1;
    while (!pi.setScale(scale, BigDecimal.ROUND_DOWN).equals(realPi)) {
        pi = pi.add(new BigDecimal(4.0 / i));
        i += 2;
        pi = pi.subtract(new BigDecimal(4.0 / i));
        i += 2;
    }

This may do one extra subtract operation, but it does half as many equals operations. And it doesn't waste time on setting and checking a variable just to alternate between two operations.

We don't need the (-1 + (i*2)) part. If we increment by 2 instead of 1, we get the same stream of values with strictly less math. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, ...

I changed the == false to the more idiomatic !.

I also changed digits to scale as I had trouble reading the original.

BigDecimal gives precise results, not quick results. It is quite possible that you are hitting real limits of the format. It's unclear at the moment why you are calculating \$\pi\$. With more context, we might be able to give more help.

Answer 2

In addition to @mdfst13's excellent answer.

I see nothing that could leak memory. However you are allocating a lot of new BigDecimal objects in a tight loop and then throwing them away. These must sooner or later be garbage collected by the VM. The GC sees that it has plenty of memory available in the system and is thus postponing its work of cleaning up so that your program can run quicker, it will clean up the memory when it feels that there is a need to do so.

In other words, things are working as normal. Do not be alarmed by the memory usage.