How to go about formatting 1200 to 1.2k in java

Here is a solution that works for any long value and that I find quite readable (the core logic is done in the bottom three lines of the format method).

It leverages TreeMap to find the appropriate suffix. It is surprisingly more efficient than a previous solution I wrote that was using arrays and was more difficult to read.

private static final NavigableMap<Long, String> suffixes = new TreeMap<> ();
static {
  suffixes.put(1_000L, "k");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000L, "M");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000L, "G");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000L, "T");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000_000L, "P");
  suffixes.put(1_000_000_000_000_000_000L, "E");
}

public static String format(long value) {
  //Long.MIN_VALUE == -Long.MIN_VALUE so we need an adjustment here
  if (value == Long.MIN_VALUE) return format(Long.MIN_VALUE + 1);
  if (value < 0) return "-" + format(-value);
  if (value < 1000) return Long.toString(value); //deal with easy case

  Entry<Long, String> e = suffixes.floorEntry(value);
  Long divideBy = e.getKey();
  String suffix = e.getValue();

  long truncated = value / (divideBy / 10); //the number part of the output times 10
  boolean hasDecimal = truncated < 100 && (truncated / 10d) != (truncated / 10);
  return hasDecimal ? (truncated / 10d) + suffix : (truncated / 10) + suffix;
}

---

Test code

public static void main(String args[]) {
  long[] numbers = {0, 5, 999, 1_000, -5_821, 10_500, -101_800, 2_000_000, -7_800_000, 92_150_000, 123_200_000, 9_999_999, 999_999_999_999_999_999L, 1_230_000_000_000_000L, Long.MIN_VALUE, Long.MAX_VALUE};
  String[] expected = {"0", "5", "999", "1k", "-5.8k", "10k", "-101k", "2M", "-7.8M", "92M", "123M", "9.9M", "999P", "1.2P", "-9.2E", "9.2E"};
  for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
    long n = numbers[i];
    String formatted = format(n);
    System.out.println(n + " => " + formatted);
    if (!formatted.equals(expected[i])) throw new AssertionError("Expected: " + expected[i] + " but found: " + formatted);
  }
}