Convert integer to string without access to libraries - c

Question

I recently read a sample job interview question:
Write a function to convert an integer
to a string. Assume you do not have
access to library functions i.e.,
itoa(), etc...
How would you go about this?

Answer 1

fast stab at it: (edited to handle negative numbers)
int n = INT_MIN;
char buffer[50];
int i = 0;
bool isNeg = n<0;
unsigned int n1 = isNeg ? -n : n;
while(n1!=0)
{
buffer[i++] = n1%10+'0';
n1=n1/10;
}
if(isNeg)
buffer[i++] = '-';
buffer[i] = '\0';
for(int t = 0; t < i/2; t++)
{
buffer[t] ^= buffer[i-t-1];
buffer[i-t-1] ^= buffer[t];
buffer[t] ^= buffer[i-t-1];
}
if(n == 0)
{
buffer[0] = '0';
buffer[1] = '\0';
}
printf(buffer);

Answer 2

A look on the web for itoa implementation will give you good examples. Here is one, avoiding to reverse the string at the end. It relies on a static buffer, so take care if you reuse it for different values.
char* itoa(int val, int base){
static char buf[32] = {0};
int i = 30;
for(; val && i ; --i, val /= base)
buf[i] = "0123456789abcdef"[val % base];
return &buf[i+1];
}

Answer 3

The algorithm is easy to see in English.
Given an integer, e.g. 123
divide by 10 => 123/10. Yielding, result = 12 and remainder = 3
add 30h to 3 and push on stack (adding 30h will convert 3 to ASCII representation)
repeat step 1 until result < 10
add 30h to result and store on stack
the stack contains the number in order of | 1 | 2 | 3 | ...

Answer 4

I would keep in mind that all of the digit characters are in increasing order within the ASCII character set and do not have other characters between them.
I would also use the / and the% operators repeatedly.
How I would go about getting the memory for the string would depend on information you have not given.

Answer 5

Assuming it is in decimal, then like this:
int num = ...;
char res[MaxDigitCount];
int len = 0;
for(; num > 0; ++len)
{
res[len] = num%10+'0';
num/=10;
}
res[len] = 0; //null-terminating
//now we need to reverse res
for(int i = 0; i < len/2; ++i)
{
char c = res[i]; res[i] = res[len-i-1]; res[len-i-1] = c;
}

Answer 6

An implementation of itoa() function seems like an easy task but actually you have to take care of many aspects that are related on your exact needs. I guess that in the interview you are expected to give some details about your way to the solution rather than copying a solution that can be found in Google (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itoa)
Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself or the interviewer:
Where should the string be located (malloced? passed by the user? static variable?)
Should I support signed numbers?
Should i support floating point?
Should I support other bases rather then 10?
Do we need any input checking?
Is the output string limited in legth?
And so on.

Answer 7

Convert integer to string without access to libraries
Convert the least significant digit to a character first and then proceed to more significant digits.
Normally I'd shift the resulting string into place, yet recursion allows skipping that step with some tight code.
Using neg_a in myitoa_helper() avoids undefined behavior with INT_MIN.
// Return character one past end of character digits.
static char *myitoa_helper(char *dest, int neg_a) {
if (neg_a <= -10) {
dest = myitoa_helper(dest, neg_a / 10);
}
*dest = (char) ('0' - neg_a % 10);
return dest + 1;
}
char *myitoa(char *dest, int a) {
if (a >= 0) {
*myitoa_helper(dest, -a) = '\0';
} else {
*dest = '-';
*myitoa_helper(dest + 1, a) = '\0';
}
return dest;
}
void myitoa_test(int a) {
char s[100];
memset(s, 'x', sizeof s);
printf("%11d <%s>\n", a, myitoa(s, a));
}
Test code & output
#include "limits.h"
#include "stdio.h"
int main(void) {
const int a[] = {INT_MIN, INT_MIN + 1, -42, -1, 0, 1, 2, 9, 10, 99, 100,
INT_MAX - 1, INT_MAX};
for (unsigned i = 0; i < sizeof a / sizeof a[0]; i++) {
myitoa_test(a[i]);
}
return 0;
}
-2147483648 <-2147483648>
-2147483647 <-2147483647>
-42 <-42>
-1 <-1>
0 <0>
1 <1>
2 <2>
9 <9>
10 <10>
99 <99>
100 <100>
2147483646 <2147483646>
2147483647 <2147483647>

Answer 8

The faster the better?
unsigned countDigits(long long x)
{
int i = 1;
while ((x /= 10) && ++i);
return i;
}
unsigned getNumDigits(long long x)
{
x < 0 ? x = -x : 0;
return
x < 10 ? 1 :
x < 100 ? 2 :
x < 1000 ? 3 :
x < 10000 ? 4 :
x < 100000 ? 5 :
x < 1000000 ? 6 :
x < 10000000 ? 7 :
x < 100000000 ? 8 :
x < 1000000000 ? 9 :
x < 10000000000 ? 10 : countDigits(x);
}
#define tochar(x) '0' + x
void tostr(char* dest, long long x)
{
unsigned i = getNumDigits(x);
char negative = x < 0;
if (negative && (*dest = '-') & (x = -x) & i++);
*(dest + i) = 0;
while ((i > negative) && (*(dest + (--i)) = tochar(((x) % 10))) | (x /= 10));
}
If you want to debug, You can split the conditions (instructions) into
lines of code inside the while scopes {}.

Answer 9

I came across this question so I decided to drop by the code I usually use for this:
char *SignedIntToStr(char *Dest, signed int Number, register unsigned char Base) {
if (Base < 2 || Base > 36) {
return (char *)0;
}
register unsigned char Digits = 1;
register unsigned int CurrentPlaceValue = 1;
for (register unsigned int T = Number/Base; T; T /= Base) {
CurrentPlaceValue *= Base;
Digits++;
}
if (!Dest) {
Dest = malloc(Digits+(Number < 0)+1);
}
char *const RDest = Dest;
if (Number < 0) {
Number = -Number;
*Dest = '-';
Dest++;
}
for (register unsigned char i = 0; i < Digits; i++) {
register unsigned char Digit = (Number/CurrentPlaceValue);
Dest[i] = (Digit < 10? '0' : 87)+Digit;
Number %= CurrentPlaceValue;
CurrentPlaceValue /= Base;
}
Dest[Digits] = '\0';
return RDest;
}
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
char String[32];
puts(SignedIntToStr(String, -100, 16));
return 0;
}
This will automatically allocate memory if NULL is passed into Dest. Otherwise it will write to Dest.

Answer 10

Here's a simple approach, but I suspect if you turn this in as-is without understanding and paraphrasing it, your teacher will know you just copied off the net:
char *pru(unsigned x, char *eob)
{
do { *--eob = x%10; } while (x/=10);
return eob;
}
char *pri(int x, char *eob)
{
eob = fmtu(x<0?-x:x, eob);
if (x<0) *--eob='-';
return eob;
}
Various improvements are possible, especially if you want to efficiently support larger-than-word integer sizes up to intmax_t. I'll leave it to you to figure out the way these functions are intended to be called.

Answer 11

Slightly longer than the solution:
static char*
itoa(int n, char s[])
{
int i, sign;
if ((sign = n) < 0)
n = -n;
i = 0;
do
{
s[i++] = n % 10 + '0';
} while ((n /= 10) > 0);
if (sign < 0)
s[i++] = '-';
s[i] = '\0';
reverse(s);
return s;
}
Reverse:
int strlen(const char* str)
{
int i = 0;
while (str != '\0')
{
i++;
str++;
}
return i;
}
static void
reverse(char s[])
{
int i, j;
char c;
for (i = 0, j = strlen(s)-1; i<j; i++, j--) {
c = s[i];
s[i] = s[j];
s[j] = c;
}
}
And although the decision davolno long here are some useful features for beginners. I hope you will be helpful.

Answer 12

This is the shortest function I can think of that:
Correctly handles all signed 32-bit integers including 0, MIN_INT32, MAX_INT32.
Returns a value that can be printed immediatelly, e.g.: printf("%s\n", GetDigits(-123))
Please comment for improvements:
static const char LARGEST_NEGATIVE[] = "-2147483648";
static char* GetDigits(int32_t x) {
char* buffer = (char*) calloc(sizeof(LARGEST_NEGATIVE), 1);
int negative = x < 0;
if (negative) {
if (x + (1 << 31) == 0) { // if x is the largest negative number
memcpy(buffer, LARGEST_NEGATIVE, sizeof(LARGEST_NEGATIVE));
return buffer;
}
x *= -1;
}
// storing digits in reversed order
int length = 0;
do {
buffer[length++] = x % 10 + '0';
x /= 10;
} while (x > 0);
if (negative) {
buffer[length++] = '-'; // appending minus
}
// reversing digits
for (int i = 0; i < length / 2; i++) {
char temp = buffer[i];
buffer[i] = buffer[length-1 - i];
buffer[length-1 - i] = temp;
}
return buffer;
}

Answer 13

//Fixed the answer from [10]
#include <iostream>
void CovertIntToString(unsigned int n1)
{
unsigned int n = INT_MIN;
char buffer[50];
int i = 0;
n = n1;
bool isNeg = n<0;
n1 = isNeg ? -n1 : n1;
while(n1!=0)
{
buffer[i++] = n1%10+'0';
n1=n1/10;
}
if(isNeg)
buffer[i++] = '-';
buffer[i] = '\0';
// Now we must reverse the string
for(int t = 0; t < i/2; t++)
{
buffer[t] ^= buffer[i-t-1];
buffer[i-t-1] ^= buffer[t];
buffer[t] ^= buffer[i-t-1];
}
if(n == 0)
{
buffer[0] = '0';
buffer[1] = '\0';
}
printf("%s", buffer);
}
int main() {
unsigned int x = 4156;
CovertIntToString(x);
return 0;
}

Answer 14

This function converts each digits of number into a char and chars add together
in one stack forming a string. Finally, string is formed from integer.
string convertToString(int num){
string str="";
for(; num>0;){
str+=(num%10+'0');
num/=10;
}
return str;
}