How to determine if a string is a number with C++?

Question

I've had quite a bit of trouble trying to write a function that checks if a string is a number. For a game I am writing I just need to check if a line from the file I am reading is a number or not (I will know if it is a parameter this way). I wrote the below function which I believe was working smoothly (or I accidentally edited to stop it or I'm schizophrenic or Windows is schizophrenic):

bool isParam (string line)
{
    if (isdigit(atoi(line.c_str())))
        return true;

    return false;
}

Answer 1

This function takes care of all the possible cases:

bool AppUtilities::checkStringIsNumber(std::string s){
    //Eliminate obvious irritants that could spoil the party
    //Handle special cases here, e.g. return true for "+", "-", "" if they are acceptable as numbers to you
    if (s == "" || s == "." || s == "+" || s == "-" || s == "+." || s == "-.") return false;

    //Remove leading / trailing spaces **IF** they are acceptable to you
    while (s.size() > 0 && s[0] == ' ') s = s.substr(1, s.size() - 1);
    while (s.size() > 0 && s[s.size() - 1] == ' ') s = s.substr(0, s.size() - 1);


    //Remove any leading + or - sign
    if (s[0] == '+' || s[0] == '-')
        s = s.substr(1, s.size() - 1);

    //Remove decimal points
    long prevLength = s.size();

    size_t start_pos = 0;
    while((start_pos = s.find(".", start_pos)) != std::string::npos) 
        s.replace(start_pos, 1, "");

    //If the string had more than 2 decimal points, return false.
    if (prevLength > s.size() + 1) return false;

    //Check that you are left with numbers only!!
    //Courtesy selected answer by Charles Salvia above
    std::string::const_iterator it = s.begin();
    while (it != s.end() && std::isdigit(*it)) ++it;
    return !s.empty() && it == s.end();

    //Tada....
}

Answer 2

I'd suggest a regex approach. A full regex-match (for example, using boost::regex) with

-?[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?

would show whether the string is a number or not. This includes positive and negative numbers, integer as well as decimal.

Other variations:

[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?

(only positive)

-?[0-9]+

(only integer)

[0-9]+

(only positive integer)

Answer 3

My solution using C++11 regex (#include <regex>), it can be used for more precise check, like unsigned int, double etc:

static const std::regex INT_TYPE("[+-]?[0-9]+");
static const std::regex UNSIGNED_INT_TYPE("[+]?[0-9]+");
static const std::regex DOUBLE_TYPE("[+-]?[0-9]+[.]?[0-9]+");
static const std::regex UNSIGNED_DOUBLE_TYPE("[+]?[0-9]+[.]?[0-9]+");

bool isIntegerType(const std::string& str_)
{
  return std::regex_match(str_, INT_TYPE);
}

bool isUnsignedIntegerType(const std::string& str_)
{
  return std::regex_match(str_, UNSIGNED_INT_TYPE);
}

bool isDoubleType(const std::string& str_)
{
  return std::regex_match(str_, DOUBLE_TYPE);
}

bool isUnsignedDoubleType(const std::string& str_)
{
  return std::regex_match(str_, UNSIGNED_DOUBLE_TYPE);
}

You can find this code at http://ideone.com/lyDtfi, this can be easily modified to meet the requirements.

Answer 4

Using <regex>. This code was tested!

bool isNumber(const std::string &token)
{
    return std::regex_match(token, std::regex("(\\+|-)?[0-9]*(\\.?([0-9]+))$"));
}

Answer 5

Try this:

isNumber(const std::string &str) {    
  return !str.empty() && str.find_first_not_of("0123456789") == string::npos;
}

Answer 6

The simplest I can think of in c++

bool isNumber(string s) {
    if(s.size()==0) return false;
    for(int i=0;i<s.size();i++) {
        if((s[i]>='0' && s[i]<='9')==false) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

Working code sample: https://ideone.com/nRX51Y