Where is the itoa function in Linux?

Question

itoa() is a really handy function to convert a number to a string. Linux does not seem to have itoa(), is there an equivalent function or do I have to use sprintf(str, "%d", num)?

Answer 1

If you just want to print them:

void binary(unsigned int n)
{
    for(int shift=sizeof(int)*8-1;shift>=0;shift--)
    {
       if (n >> shift & 1)
         printf("1");
       else
         printf("0");

    }
    printf("\n");
} 

Answer 2

i tried my own implementation of itoa(), it seem's work in binary, octal, decimal and hex

#define INT_LEN (10)
#define HEX_LEN (8)
#define BIN_LEN (32)
#define OCT_LEN (11)

static char *  my_itoa ( int value, char * str, int base )
{
    int i,n =2,tmp;
    char buf[BIN_LEN+1];


    switch(base)
    {
        case 16:
            for(i = 0;i<HEX_LEN;++i)
            {
                if(value/base>0)
                {
                    n++;
                }
            }
            snprintf(str, n, "%x" ,value);
            break;
        case 10:
            for(i = 0;i<INT_LEN;++i)
            {
                if(value/base>0)
                {
                    n++;
                }
            }
            snprintf(str, n, "%d" ,value);
            break;
        case 8:
            for(i = 0;i<OCT_LEN;++i)
            {
                if(value/base>0)
                {
                    n++;
                }
            }
            snprintf(str, n, "%o" ,value);
            break;
        case 2:
            for(i = 0,tmp = value;i<BIN_LEN;++i)
            {
                if(tmp/base>0)
                {
                    n++;
                }
                tmp/=base;
            }
            for(i = 1 ,tmp = value; i<n;++i)
            {
                if(tmp%2 != 0)
                {
                    buf[n-i-1] ='1';
                }
                else
                {
                    buf[n-i-1] ='0';
                }
                tmp/=base;
            }
            buf[n-1] = '\0';
            strcpy(str,buf);
            break;
        default:
            return NULL;
    }
    return str;
}

Answer 3

EDIT: Sorry, I should have remembered that this machine is decidedly non-standard, having plugged in various non-standard libc implementations for academic purposes ;-)

As itoa() is indeed non-standard, as mentioned by several helpful commenters, it is best to use sprintf(target_string,"%d",source_int) or (better yet, because it's safe from buffer overflows) snprintf(target_string, size_of_target_string_in_bytes, "%d", source_int). I know it's not quite as concise or cool as itoa(), but at least you can Write Once, Run Everywhere (tm) ;-)

Here's the old (edited) answer

You are correct in stating that the default gcc libc does not include itoa(), like several other platforms, due to it not technically being a part of the standard. See here for a little more info. Note that you have to

#include <stdlib.h>

Of course you already know this, because you wanted to use itoa() on Linux after presumably using it on another platform, but... the code (stolen from the link above) would look like:

Example

/* itoa example */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main ()
{
  int i;
  char buffer [33];
  printf ("Enter a number: ");
  scanf ("%d",&i);
  itoa (i,buffer,10);
  printf ("decimal: %s\n",buffer);
  itoa (i,buffer,16);
  printf ("hexadecimal: %s\n",buffer);
  itoa (i,buffer,2);
  printf ("binary: %s\n",buffer);
  return 0;
}

Output:

Enter a number: 1750
decimal: 1750
hexadecimal: 6d6
binary: 11011010110

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

If you are calling it a lot, the advice of "just use snprintf" can be annoying. So here's what you probably want:

const char *my_itoa_buf(char *buf, size_t len, int num)
{
  static char loc_buf[sizeof(int) * CHAR_BITS]; /* not thread safe */

  if (!buf)
  {
    buf = loc_buf;
    len = sizeof(loc_buf);
  }

  if (snprintf(buf, len, "%d", num) == -1)
    return ""; /* or whatever */

  return buf;
}

const char *my_itoa(int num)
{ return my_itoa_buf(NULL, 0, num); }

Answer 5

Following function allocates just enough memory to keep string representation of the given number and then writes the string representation into this area using standard sprintf method.

char *itoa(long n)
{
    int len = n==0 ? 1 : floor(log10l(labs(n)))+1;
    if (n<0) len++; // room for negative sign '-'

    char    *buf = calloc(sizeof(char), len+1); // +1 for null
    snprintf(buf, len+1, "%ld", n);
    return   buf;
}

Don't forget to free up allocated memory when out of need:

char *num_str = itoa(123456789L);
// ... 
free(num_str);

N.B. As snprintf copies n-1 bytes, we have to call snprintf(buf, len+1, "%ld", n) (not just snprintf(buf, len, "%ld", n))

Answer 6

direct copy to buffer : 64 bit integer itoa hex :

    char* itoah(long num, char* s, int len)
    {
            long n, m = 16;
            int i = 16+2;
            int shift = 'a'- ('9'+1);


            if(!s || len < 1)
                    return 0;

            n = num < 0 ? -1 : 1;
            n = n * num;

            len = len > i ? i : len;
            i = len < i ? len : i;

            s[i-1] = 0;
            i--;

            if(!num)
            {
                    if(len < 2)
                            return &s[i];

                    s[i-1]='0';
                    return &s[i-1];
            }

            while(i && n)
            {
                    s[i-1] = n % m + '0';

                    if (s[i-1] > '9')
                            s[i-1] += shift ;

                    n = n/m;
                    i--;
            }

            if(num < 0)
            {
                    if(i)
                    {
                            s[i-1] = '-';
                            i--;
                    }
            }

            return &s[i];
    }

note: change long to long long for 32 bit machine. long to int in case for 32 bit integer. m is the radix. When decreasing radix, increase number of characters (variable i). When increasing radix, decrease number of characters (better). In case of unsigned data type, i just becomes 16 + 1.