How to convert a string to integer in C?

Question

I am trying to find out if there is an alternative way of converting string to integer in C.

I regularly pattern the following in my code.

char s[] = "45";

int num = atoi(s);

So, is there a better way or another way?

Answer 1

You can always roll your own!

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>

int my_atoi(const char* snum)
{
    int idx, strIdx = 0, accum = 0, numIsNeg = 0;
    const unsigned int NUMLEN = (int)strlen(snum);

    /* Check if negative number and flag it. */
    if(snum[0] == 0x2d)
        numIsNeg = 1;

    for(idx = NUMLEN - 1; idx >= 0; idx--)
    {
        /* Only process numbers from 0 through 9. */
        if(snum[strIdx] >= 0x30 && snum[strIdx] <= 0x39)
            accum += (snum[strIdx] - 0x30) * pow(10, idx);

        strIdx++;
    }

    /* Check flag to see if originally passed -ve number and convert result if so. */
    if(!numIsNeg)
        return accum;
    else
        return accum * -1;
}

int main()
{
    /* Tests... */
    printf("Returned number is: %d\n", my_atoi("34574"));
    printf("Returned number is: %d\n", my_atoi("-23"));

    return 0;
}

This will do what you want without clutter.

Answer 2

You can code a little atoi() for fun:

int my_getnbr(char *str)
{
  int result;
  int puiss;

  result = 0;
  puiss = 1;
  while (('-' == (*str)) || ((*str) == '+'))
  {
      if (*str == '-')
        puiss = puiss * -1;
      str++;
  }
  while ((*str >= '0') && (*str <= '9'))
  {
      result = (result * 10) + ((*str) - '0');
      str++;
  }
  return (result * puiss);
}

You can also make it recursive wich can old in 3 lines =)

Answer 3

Ok, I had the same problem.I came up with this solution.It worked for me the best.I did try atoi() but didn't work well for me.So here is my solution:

void splitInput(int arr[], int sizeArr, char num[])
{
    for(int i = 0; i < sizeArr; i++)
        // We are subtracting 48 because the numbers in ASCII starts at 48.
        arr[i] = (int)num[i] - 48;
}

Answer 4

Just wanted to share a solution for unsigned long aswell.

unsigned long ToUInt(char* str)
{
    unsigned long mult = 1;
    unsigned long re = 0;
    int len = strlen(str);
    for(int i = len -1 ; i >= 0 ; i--)
    {
        re = re + ((int)str[i] -48)*mult;
        mult = mult*10;
    }
    return re;
}

Answer 5

Don't use functions from ato... group. These are broken and virtually useless. A moderately better solution would be to use sscanf, although it is not perfect either.

To convert string to integer, functions from strto... group should be used. In your specific case it would be strtol function.

Answer 6

In C++, you can use a such function:

template <typename T>
T to(const std::string & s)
{
    std::istringstream stm(s);
    T result;
    stm >> result;

    if(stm.tellg() != s.size())
        throw error;

    return result;
}

This can help you to convert any string to any type such as float, int, double...