Java String to int with examples

There are couple of ways to convert a numeric value represented by String (e.g. “10”) into Integer or int type in Java. Let’s explore in this article with examples.

1. Integer.parseInt(…)
   1. Integer.parseInt (…) Method Signature
   2. Integer.parseInt(…) Examples
   3. Integer.parseInt(…) NumberFormatException
2. Integer.valueOf(…)
   1. Method Signature
   2. Examples
3. Apache Commons: NumberUtils.toInt(…)

Integer.parseInt(…)

Integer.parseInt(String s) is the most common way of converting numbers represented by String variables to int (primitive) in Java.

Integer.parseInt (…) Method Signature

public static int parseInt​(String s)
                    throws NumberFormatException

Integer.parseInt(…) Examples

The example below shows how to use the parseInt(...) method to convert a String variable, s into int.

public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = "25";
        int result = Integer.parseInt(s);
        System.out.println(result);
}

Output:

25

Integer.parseInt(…) NumberFormatException

If you pass it an invalid value i.e. the string does not contain a parsable integer, or it is empty or null, Integer.parseInt(...) will throw NumberFormatException.

public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = "abc";
        int result = Integer.parseInt(s);
        System.out.println(result);
}

Output:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "abc"
	at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:65)
	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:580)
	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:615)
	at com.example.demo.Main.main(Main.java:7)

Integer.valueOf(…)

There’s another method you can use to convert parsable strings to integer values in Java: Integer.valueOf(...). Just like parseInt(...), it is also a static method on the Integer class. However, unlike parseInt(...), it returns a Integer object (aka boxed primitive type). Use this if you want an Integer object instead of the primitive int.

Method Signature

The method definition is given below. It will also throw NumberFormatException just like parseInt(...) on invalid argument values.

public static Integer valueOf​(String s)
                       throws NumberFormatException

Examples

public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = "25";
        int result = Integer.valueOf(s);
        System.out.println(result);
    }

Output:

25

Apache Commons: NumberUtils.toInt(…)

If you’re using Apache Commons library, you can also use the NumberUtils.toInt(String str) method to convert a parsable String into int. It differs from Integer.parseInt(...) in that it returns 0 if the conversion fails due to string being invalid.