Not every number in Apex is a whole number. For numbers with decimals, we can use the appropriately named Decimal primitive datatype.

Decimal amount = 500.12;
Decimal negativeBalance = -35.99;
Decimal magicNumber = 3.14159;

Later when we retrieve currency fields from sObjects, we’ll use Decimals to keep track of them.

Decimals can be reassigned too!

Decimal amount = 500.12;
amount = 450.65;
amount = 320.99;

In Apex, the number of digits to the right of the decimal point is called scale. There are a ton of ways developers can manipulate and round decimal values. We won’t cover those in this lesson, but if you’re curious, here are the Salesforce docs.

That’s it! Pretty straightforward.