Best way to generate a List<Double> sequence of values given start, end, and step?

Sequences can be easily generated using Java 11 Stream API.

The straightforward approach is to use DoubleStream:

public static List<Double> generateSequenceDoubleStream(double start, double end, double step) {
  return DoubleStream.iterate(start, d -> d <= end, d -> d + step)
      .boxed()
      .collect(toList());
}

On ranges with a large number of iterations, double precision error could accumulate resulting in bigger error closer to the end of the range. The error can be minimised by switching to IntStream and using integers and single double multiplier:

public static List<Double> generateSequenceIntStream(int start, int end, int step, double multiplier) {
  return IntStream.iterate(start, i -> i <= end, i -> i + step)
      .mapToDouble(i -> i * multiplier)
      .boxed()
      .collect(toList());
}

To get rid of a double precision error at all, BigDecimal can be used:

public static List<Double> generateSequenceBigDecimal(BigDecimal start, BigDecimal end, BigDecimal step) {
  return Stream.iterate(start, d -> d.compareTo(end) <= 0, d -> d.add(step))
      .mapToDouble(BigDecimal::doubleValue)
      .boxed()
      .collect(toList());
}

Examples:

public static void main(String[] args) {
  System.out.println(generateSequenceDoubleStream(0.0, 2.0, 0.2));
  //[0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6000000000000001, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5999999999999999, 1.7999999999999998, 1.9999999999999998]

  System.out.println(generateSequenceIntStream(0, 20, 2, 0.1));
  //[0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6000000000000001, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2000000000000002, 1.4000000000000001, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0]

  System.out.println(generateSequenceBigDecimal(new BigDecimal("0"), new BigDecimal("2"), new BigDecimal("0.2")));
  //[0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0]
}

Method iterate with this signature (3 parameters) was added in Java 9. So, for Java 8 the code looks like

DoubleStream.iterate(start, d -> d + step)
    .limit((int) (1 + (end - start) / step))

Me personally, I would shorten the DoubleSequenceGenerator class up a bit for other goodies and use only one sequence generator method that contains the option to utilize whatever desired precision wanted or utilize no precision at all:

In the generator method below, if nothing (or any value less than 0) is supplied to the optional setPrecision parameter then no decimal precision rounding is carried out. If 0 is supplied for a precision value then the numbers are rounded to their nearest whole number (ie: 89.674 is rounded to 90.0). If a specific precision value greater than 0 is supplied then values are converted to that decimal precision.

BigDecimal is used here for...well....precision:

import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.math.RoundingMode;

public class DoubleSequenceGenerator {

     public static List<Double> generateSequence(double start, double end, 
                                          double step, int... setPrecision) {
        int precision = -1;
        if (setPrecision.length > 0) {
            precision = setPrecision[0];
        }
        List<Double> sequence = new ArrayList<>();
        for (double val = start; val < end; val+= step) {
            if (precision > -1) {
                sequence.add(BigDecimal.valueOf(val).setScale(precision, RoundingMode.HALF_UP).doubleValue());
            }
            else {
                sequence.add(BigDecimal.valueOf(val).doubleValue());
            }
        }
        if (sequence.get(sequence.size() - 1) < end) { 
            sequence.add(end); 
        }
        return sequence;
    }    

    // Other class goodies here ....
}

And in main():

System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 2.0, 0.2));
System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 2.0, 0.2, 0));
System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 2.0, 0.2, 1));
System.out.println();
System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 102.0, 10.2, 0));
System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 102.0, 10.2, 0));
System.out.println(generateSequence(0.0, 102.0, 10.2, 1));

And the console displays:

[0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6000000000000001, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5999999999999999, 1.7999999999999998, 1.9999999999999998, 2.0]
[0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 2.0, 2.0, 2.0]
[0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0]

[0.0, 10.2, 20.4, 30.599999999999998, 40.8, 51.0, 61.2, 71.4, 81.60000000000001, 91.80000000000001, 102.0]
[0.0, 10.0, 20.0, 31.0, 41.0, 51.0, 61.0, 71.0, 82.0, 92.0, 102.0]
[0.0, 10.2, 20.4, 30.6, 40.8, 51.0, 61.2, 71.4, 81.6, 91.8, 102.0]

Try this.

public static List<Double> generateSequenceRounded(double start, double end, double step) {
    long mult = (long) Math.pow(10, BigDecimal.valueOf(step).scale());
    return DoubleStream.iterate(start, d -> (double) Math.round(mult * (d + step)) / mult)
                .limit((long) (1 + (end - start) / step)).boxed().collect(Collectors.toList());
}

Here,

int java.math.BigDecimal.scale()

Returns the scale of this BigDecimal. If zero or positive, the scale is the number of digits to the right ofthe decimal point. If negative, the unscaled value of the number is multiplied by ten to the power of the negation of the scale. For example, a scale of -3 means the unscaled value is multiplied by 1000.

In main()

System.out.println(generateSequenceRounded(0.0, 102.0, 10.2));
System.out.println(generateSequenceRounded(0.0, 102.0, 10.24367));

And Output:

[0.0, 10.2, 20.4, 30.6, 40.8, 51.0, 61.2, 71.4, 81.6, 91.8, 102.0]
[0.0, 10.24367, 20.48734, 30.73101, 40.97468, 51.21835, 61.46202, 71.70569, 81.94936, 92.19303]