How to convert string to array with no spaces - arrays

Question

Related:
How to convert from string to array?
This is a follow-up question. How would I make a list of all the digits in this number (currently as a string)?
"123" -> [1,2,3]
There are no delimiters here so how should I go about doing this?
Note as of now I am using the latest version of Julia, v1.8.3 so parse doesn't seem to work in the other question's answers. Error when I use parse():
ERROR: LoadError: MethodError: no method matching parse(::SubString{String})
Closest candidates are:
parse(::Type{T}, ::AbstractString) where T<:Complex at parse.jl:381
parse(::Type{Sockets.IPAddr}, ::AbstractString) at ~/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.8/Sockets/src/IPAddr.jl:246
parse(::Type{T}, ::AbstractChar; base) where T<:Integer at parse.jl:40
...
Stacktrace:
[1] iterate
# ./generator.jl:47 [inlined]
[2] _collect
# ./array.jl:807 [inlined]
[3] collect_similar
# ./array.jl:716 [inlined]
[4] map
# ./abstractarray.jl:2933 [inlined]
[5] top-level scope
# ~/proc/self/fd/0:1
in expression starting at /proc/self/fd/0:1
exit status 1

Answer 1

Easy peasy like this:
function str2vec(s::String)
return map(x->parse(Int,x), split(s,""))
end
julia> str2vec("124")
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
Or by broadcasting:
julia> parse.(Int, split("124",""))
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
By piping functions:
julia> "124" |> x->split(x, "") |> x->parse.(Int, x)
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
Utilizing the eachsplit function, which is a lazy function and returns a generator object (introduced in Julia 1.8):
julia> eachsplit("124", "") |> x->parse.(Int, x)
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
According to Dan's advice, you try another ways:
Using the Int8 on the collected chars:
julia> Int8.(collect("124")).-48
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
Using the Iterators.map:
julia> collect(Iterators.map(x->Int8(x)-48,"124"))
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
Also, one can consider the DNF's proposal:
julia> [Int(x)-48 for x in "124"]
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
4
Benchmarking
julia> using BenchmarkTools
julia> #btime str2vec("124");
#btime parse.(Int, split("124",""));
#btime "124" |> x->split(x, "") |> x->parse.(Int, x);
#btime eachsplit("124", "") |> x->parse.(Int, x);
#btime Int8.(collect("124")).-48;
#btime collect(Iterators.map(x->Int8(x)-48,"123"));
#btime [Int(x)-48 for x in "123"]
681.250 ns (11 allocations: 864 bytes)
675.460 ns (11 allocations: 864 bytes)
679.747 ns (11 allocations: 864 bytes)
1.280 μs (14 allocations: 816 bytes)
92.412 ns (2 allocations: 160 bytes)
61.711 ns (1 allocation: 80 bytes)
45.152 ns (1 allocation: 80 bytes)

Answer 2

You can also use the inbuilt digits function.
By default, it returns the digits last-to-first:
julia> digits(parse(Int, "1234"))
4-element Vector{Int64}:
4
3
2
1
You can reverse! the result if you want them in the same order as in the string:
julia> digits(parse(Int, "1234")) |> reverse!
4-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
3
4
This runs much faster than parseing each digit individually. The Int8(...) .- 48 method is still faster, but it fails silently if the input string happens to be invalid, which could be dangerous further down the line. Since we're using parse here, this method reports the error correctly in such cases.
julia> Int8.(collect("invalid")).-48
7-element Vector{Int64}:
57
62
70
49
60
57
52
julia> digits(parse(Int, "invalid")) |> reverse!
ERROR: ArgumentError: invalid base 10 digit 'i' in "invalid"

Answer 3

Both other answers are very good, but they have forgotten about comprehensions. Using a comprehension gives both the fastest safe solution, and the absolute fastest solution, tied with the Iterators.map.
Fastest unsafe (based on the answer by #Shayan with input from #DanGetz):
julia> #btime [Int(c)-48 for c in "123"]
34.372 ns (1 allocation: 80 bytes)
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
3
The above will silently return the wrong answer for invalid inputs, as noted by #SundarR.
Here's an even nicer and more intuitive version of the above, which is the same under the hood:
[c - '0' for c in "123"]
It works because Int('0') equals 48, and subtraction of Chars yields an Int.
Fastest safe solution (based on #SundarR's answer):
julia> #btime [parse(Int, c) for c in "123"]
47.822 ns (1 allocation: 80 bytes)
3-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
3
julia> [parse(Int, c) for c in "invalid"]
ERROR: ArgumentError: invalid base 10 digit 'i'
I would probably recommend the latter in most cases.
One more thing you may or may not be aware of: You can create a generator instead of a vector, in case you don't actually need the vector itself, but want to iterate over the converted numbers for some other purpose. The syntax is almost identical to an array comprehension, just use () instead:
g = (parse(Int, c) for c in "123")
for val in g
println(val, " squared equals ", val^2)
end
1 squared equals 1
2 squared equals 4
3 squared equals 9
This will not allocate an intermediate temporary vector, and creating the generator is essentially free:
julia> #btime (parse(Int, c) for c in "123")
1.900 ns (0 allocations: 0 bytes)
The computational cost is paid during iteration instead. This is similar to using Iterators.map without collect, but arguably has nicer syntax.