【Z一贴】C++ String: How to convert a string into a numeric type?

C++ String: How to convert a string into a numeric type?

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Q: How to convert a string into a numeric type?

A: There is one thing that you are not allowed to ignore when you convert a string into a numeric type: the conversion might fail because the
string you are converting might not contain a valid representation of a number.

If, for example, you try to convert the string "Hello" to a number, the conversion must fail.

The old C way (deprecated):

Many people use the 'atoi()', 'atof()' and the other functions from this "family". They're easy to use but have a major drawback: they return 0 both on failure and when converting the string "0", thus making a consistent error detection as good as impossible. We give this little sample for the sake of completeness:

Code:

   
   


    
    const 
    
    char* str_int = 
    
    "777";

    
    const 
    
    char* str_float = 
    
    "333.3";

    
    int i = atoi(str_int);

    
    float f = atof(str_float);
   
   

A better way:

A bit more complicated, but also more consistent way is to use 'sscanf()' in one of it's flavors:

Code:

   
   


    
    const 
    
    char* str_int = 
    
    "777";

    
    const 
    
    char* str_float = 
    
    "333.3";

    
    int i;

    
    float f;


    
    if(EOF == sscanf(str_int, 
    
    "%d", &i))
{
  
    
    //error
}


    
    if(EOF == sscanf(str_float, 
    
    "%f", &f))
{
  
    
    //error
}
   
   

Since 'sscanf()' takes a 'const char*' parameter, you can directly use a 'CString' with it:

Code:

   
   

    
    
CString str_int(
    
    "777");


    
    if(EOF == sscanf(str_int, 
    
    '%d', &i))
{
  
    
    //error
}
   
   

Be very careful with the format specifier (i.e. "%d" in this example). 'sscanf()' has no way to check whether the format specifier and the type of the passed variable match each other. If they don't you will get unexpected
results. Also note that 'sscanf()' is able to extract more than one numerical value from a string with one call. Have a look in e.g. MSDN for details.