Convert int32 to string in Golang

Question

I need to convert an int32 to string in Golang. Is it possible to convert int32 to string in Golang without converting to

Answer 1

One line answer is fmt.Sprint(i).

Anyway there are many conversions, even inside standard library function like fmt.Sprint(i), so you have some options (try The Go Playground):

---

1- You may write your conversion function (Fastest):

func String(n int32) string {
    buf := [11]byte{}
    pos := len(buf)
    i := int64(n)
    signed := i < 0
    if signed {
        i = -i
    }
    for {
        pos--
        buf[pos], i = '0'+byte(i%10), i/10
        if i == 0 {
            if signed {
                pos--
                buf[pos] = '-'
            }
            return string(buf[pos:])
        }
    }
}

---

2- You may use fmt.Sprint(i) (Slow)
See inside:

// Sprint formats using the default formats for its operands and returns the resulting string.
// Spaces are added between operands when neither is a string.
func Sprint(a ...interface{}) string {
    p := newPrinter()
    p.doPrint(a)
    s := string(p.buf)
    p.free()
    return s
}

---

3- You may use strconv.Itoa(int(i)) (Fast)
See inside:

// Itoa is shorthand for FormatInt(int64(i), 10).
func Itoa(i int) string {
    return FormatInt(int64(i), 10)
}

---

4- You may use strconv.FormatInt(int64(i), 10) (Faster)
See inside:

// FormatInt returns the string representation of i in the given base,
// for 2 <= base <= 36. The result uses the lower-case letters 'a' to 'z'
// for digit values >= 10.
func FormatInt(i int64, base int) string {
    _, s := formatBits(nil, uint64(i), base, i < 0, false)
    return s
}

---

Comparison & Benchmark (with 50000000 iterations):

s = String(i)                       takes:  5.5923198s
s = String2(i)                      takes:  5.5923199s
s = strconv.FormatInt(int64(i), 10) takes:  5.9133382s
s = strconv.Itoa(int(i))            takes:  5.9763418s
s = fmt.Sprint(i)                   takes: 13.5697761s

Code:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    //"strconv"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    var s string
    i := int32(-2147483648)
    t := time.Now()
    for j := 0; j < 50000000; j++ {
        s = String(i) //5.5923198s
        //s = String2(i) //5.5923199s
        //s = strconv.FormatInt(int64(i), 10) // 5.9133382s
        //s = strconv.Itoa(int(i)) //5.9763418s
        //s = fmt.Sprint(i) // 13.5697761s
    }
    fmt.Println(time.Since(t))
    fmt.Println(s)
}

func String(n int32) string {
    buf := [11]byte{}
    pos := len(buf)
    i := int64(n)
    signed := i < 0
    if signed {
        i = -i
    }
    for {
        pos--
        buf[pos], i = '0'+byte(i%10), i/10
        if i == 0 {
            if signed {
                pos--
                buf[pos] = '-'
            }
            return string(buf[pos:])
        }
    }
}

func String2(n int32) string {
    buf := [11]byte{}
    pos := len(buf)
    i, q := int64(n), int64(0)
    signed := i < 0
    if signed {
        i = -i
    }
    for {
        pos--
        q = i / 10
        buf[pos], i = '0'+byte(i-10*q), q
        if i == 0 {
            if signed {
                pos--
                buf[pos] = '-'
            }
            return string(buf[pos:])
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The Sprint function converts a given value to string.

package main

import (
     "fmt"
)

func main() {

      var sampleInt int32 = 1

      sampleString := fmt.Sprint(sampleInt)
      fmt.Printf("%+V %+V\n", sampleInt, sampleString)
}

// %!V(int32=+1) %!V(string=1)

See this example.

Answer 3

Use a conversion and strconv.FormatInt to format int32 values as a string. The conversion has zero cost on most platforms.

s := strconv.FormatInt(int64(n), 10)

If you have many calls like this, consider writing a helper function similar to strconv.Itoa:

func formatInt32(n int32) string {
    return strconv.FormatInt(int64(n), 10)
}

All of the low-level integer formatting code in the standard library works with int64 values. Any answer to this question using formatting code in the standard library (fmt package included) requires a conversion to int64 somewhere. The only way to avoid the conversion is to write formatting function from scratch, but there's little point in doing that.