Converting String to Int in Java

1. Introduction

There are several ways of converting a String to an integer in Java. We present a few of them here with a discussion of the pros and cons of each.

2. Integer.parseInt()

Integer.parseInt(String) can parse a string and return a plain int value. The string value is parsed assuming a radix of 10. The string can contain “+” and “-” characters at the start to indicate a positive or negative number.

int value = Integer.parseInt("25"); // returns 25

int value = Integer.parseInt("-43"); // return -43

int value = Integer.parseInt("+9061"); // returns 9061

Illegal characters within the string (including period “.“) result in a NumberFormatException. Additionally a string containing a number larger than Integer.MAX_VALUE (231 - 1) also result in a NumberFormatException.

// throws NumberFormatException -- contains "."
int value = Integer.parseInt("25.0");

// throws NumberFormatException -- contains text
int value = Integer.parseInt("93hello");

// throws NumberFormatException -- too large
int value = Integer.parseInt("2367423890");

To explicitly specify the radix, use Integer.parseInt(String,int) and pass the radix as the second argument.

// returns 443
int value = Integer.parseInt("673", 8);

// throws NumberFormatException -- contains character "9" not valid for radix 8
int value = Integer.parseInt("9061", 8);

// returns 70966758 -- "h" and "i" are valid characters for radix 20.
int value = Integer.parseInt("123aghi", 20);

3. Integer.valueOf()

The static method Integer.valueOf() works similar to Integer.parseInt() with the difference that the method returns an Integer object rather than an int value.

// returns 733
Integer value = Integer.valueOf("733");

Use this method when you need an Integer object rather than a bare int. This method invokes Integer.parseInt(String) and creates an Integer from the result.

4. Integer.decode()

For parsing an integer starting with these prefixes: “0” for octal, “0x”, “0X” and “#” for hex, you can use the method Integer.decode(String). An optional “+” or “-” sign can precede the number. Al the following formats are supported by this method:

Signopt DecimalNumeral
Signopt 0x HexDigits
Signopt 0X HexDigits
Signopt # HexDigits
Signopt 0 OctalDigits

As with Integer.valueOf(), this method returns an Integer object rather than a plain int. Some examples follow:

// returns 53
Integer value = Integer.decode("0x35");

// returns 1194684
Integer value = Integer.decode("#123abc');

// throws NumberFormatException -- value too large
Integer value = Integer.decode("#123abcdef");

// returns -231
Integer value = Integer.decode("-0347");

5. Convert Large Values into Long

When the value being parsed does not fit in an integer (231-1), a NumberFormatException is thrown. In these cases, you can use analogous methods of the Long class: Long.parseLong(String), Long.valueOf(String) and Long.decode(String). These work similar to their Integer counterparts but return a Long object (or a long in the case of Long.parseLong(String)). The limit of a long is Long.LONG_MAX (defined to be 263-1).

// returns 378943640350
long value = Long.parseLong("378943640350");

// returns 3935157603823
Long value = Long.decode("0x39439abcdef");

6. Use BigInteger for Larger Numbers

Java provides another numeric type: java.math.BigInteger with an arbitrary precision. A disadvantage of using BigInteger is that common operations like adding, subtracting, etc require method invocation and cannot be used with operators like “+“, “-“, etc.

To convert a String to a BigInteger, just use the constructor as follows:

BigInteger bi = new BigInteger("3489534895489358943");

To specify a radix different than 10, use a different constructor:

BigInteger bi = new BigInteger("324789045345498589", 12);

7. Parse for Numbers Within Text

To parse for numbers interspersed with arbitrary text, you can use the java.util.Scanner class as follows:

String str = "hello123: we have a 1000 worlds out there.";
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(str).useDemiliter("\\D+");
while (s.hasNextInt())
  System.out.printf("(%1$d) ", s.nextInt());
// prints "(123) (1000)"

This method offers a powerful way of parsing for numbers, although it comes with the expense of using a regular expression scanner.

Summary

To summarize, there are various methods of converting a string to an int in java.

  • Integer.parseInt() is the simplest and returns an int.
  • Integer.valueOf() is similar but returns an Integer object.
  • Integer.decode() can parse numbers starting with “0x” and “0” as hex and octal respectively.
  • For larger numbers, use the corresponding methods in the Long class.
  • And for arbitrary precision integers, use the BigInteger class.
  • Finally, to parse arbitrary text for numbers, we can use the java.util.Scanner class with a regular expression.

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