How to get a BigDecimal from german number (12,34)?

Question

How can i convert a string "12,34" to a BigDecimal object (value of 12.34)?
I tried using special locale NumberFormat, but this doesn't work:
     * Convert a string to a BigDecimal object.
     * @param string String to convert.
     * @param pattern Pattern format to parse input string.
     * @param locale Locale to use for text formatting.
     * @return BigDecimal BigDecimal object with value represented by <I>string</I>
     * or null if conversion failed or <I>string</I> is empty.
    public static BigDecimal toBigDecimal(String string, String pattern, Locale locale) {
        BigDecimal result = null;
        if (string != null) {
            if (pattern == null) {
                pattern = "###,###,###,##0.####"; //default
            if (locale == null) {
                locale = Locale.getDefault(); //default is GERMANY anyway ...
            DecimalFormat df = (DecimalFormat) NumberFormat.getInstance(locale);
            df.applyPattern(pattern);
            Number num = df.parse(string, new ParsePosition(0));
            if (num != null) {
                try {
                    string = string.replace(',', '.');
                    result = new BigDecimal(string);
                } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) { /* ignore */ }
        }//else: input unavailable
        return result;
    }//toBigDecimal()this code only works for string "12.34" but not for "12,34" (german style)... ?

Answer 1

no, num.doubleValue() is not exact enough (can lead to different numbers after the decimal point). the only way i have found so far to convert exactly is to use the String constructor of BigDecimal.
the starnge thing is, that the same value as a fixed string works, but not the string value:
    public static BigDecimal toBigDecimal(String string, String pattern) {
        BigDecimal result = null;
        if (string != null) {
            java.text.DecimalFormat df = new java.text.DecimalFormat(pattern);
            Number num = df.parse(string, new java.text.ParsePosition(0));
            if (num != null) {
                try {
                    string = string.replace(',', '.');
                    System.out.println("1: "+new BigDecimal("12.34"));
                    System.out.println("2: "+new BigDecimal(string)); //thorws NumberFormatException, even though string has the value "12.34" (checked with debugger)
                    result = new BigDecimal(string);
                } catch (NumberFormatException nfe) {
                    System.err.println("toBigDecimal():"+ nfe);
        return result;
    }//toBigDecimal()output:
1: 12.34
toBigDecimal():java.lang.NumberFormatException: 1234
where is the decimal point? the debugger shows that 'string' has the value "12.34" (with decimal point)????