parseInt alternative

Question

Firstly - my description ;)

I've got a XmlHttpRequests JSON response from the server. MySQL driver outputs all data as string and PHP returns it as it is, so any integer is returned as string, therefore:

Is there any fast alternative (hack) for parseInt() function in JS which can parse pure numeric string, e.g.

var foo = {"bar": "123"};
...
foo.bar = parseInt(foo.bar); // (int) 123

Answer 1

To convert to an integer simply use the unary + operator, it should be the fastest way:

var int = +string;

Conversions to other types can be done in a similar manner:

var string = otherType + "";
var bool = !!anything;

More info.