Function parseBigDecimal( str )

Description:
Attempts to interpret a string as a "BigDecimal" value. This can be used for working with string representations of non-integer values that require more precision or range than is possible in a 64-bit IEEE-754 double precision variable.

The result is a BigDecimal object, which can't be used in normal numeric expressions, but has a number of methods defined on it for comparison, arithmetic, bit manipulation etc. See the java.math.BigDecimal javadocs for details.

Parameters:
str (String)
string contining numeric representation
Return Value (BigDecimal):
BigDecimal value of str
Example:
parseBigDecimal("101").compareTo(parseBigDecimal("102")) = -1
Signature:
BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(String)