How do I check if a C++ string is an int?

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Another version…

Use strtol, wrapping it inside a simple function to hide its complexity :

inline bool isInteger(const std::string & s)
{
   if(s.empty() || ((!isdigit(s[0])) && (s[0] != '-') && (s[0] != '+'))) return false;

   char * p;
   strtol(s.c_str(), &p, 10);

   return (*p == 0);
}

Why strtol ?

As far as I love C++, sometimes the C API is the best answer as far as I am concerned:

  • using exceptions is overkill for a test that is authorized to fail
  • the temporary stream object creation by the lexical cast is overkill and over-inefficient when the C standard library has a little known dedicated function that does the job.

How does it work ?

strtol seems quite raw at first glance, so an explanation will make the code simpler to read :

strtol will parse the string, stopping at the first character that cannot be considered part of an integer. If you provide p (as I did above), it sets p right at this first non-integer character.

My reasoning is that if p is not set to the end of the string (the 0 character), then there is a non-integer character in the string s, meaning s is not a correct integer.

The first tests are there to eliminate corner cases (leading spaces, empty string, etc.).

This function should be, of course, customized to your needs (are leading spaces an error? etc.).

Sources :

See the description of strtol at: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/string/byte/strtol.

See, too, the description of strtol‘s sister functions (strtod, strtoul, etc.).

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