What's the best way to check if a String represents an integer in Java?

Question

If you are not concerned with potential overflow problems this function will perform about 20-30 times faster than using Integer.parseInt().

public static boolean isInteger(String str) {
    if (str == null) {
        return false;
    }
    int length = str.length();
    if (length == 0) {
        return false;
    }
    int i = 0;
    if (str.charAt(0) == '-') {
        if (length == 1) {
            return false;
        }
        i = 1;
    }
    for (; i < length; i++) {
        char c = str.charAt(i);
        if (c < '0' || c > '9') {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

You have it, but you should only catch NumberFormatException.

Did a quick benchmark. Exceptions aren't actually that expensivve, unless you start popping back multiple methods and the JVM has to do a lot of work to get the execution stack in place. When staying in the same method, they aren't bad performers.

 public void RunTests()
 {
     String str = "1234567890";

     long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByException(str);
     long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByException: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

     startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByRegex(str);
     endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByRegex: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

     startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByJonas(str);
     endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByJonas: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);
 }

 private boolean IsInt_ByException(String str)
 {
     try
     {
         Integer.parseInt(str);
         return true;
     }
     catch(NumberFormatException nfe)
     {
         return false;
     }
 }

 private boolean IsInt_ByRegex(String str)
 {
     return str.matches("^-?\\d+$");
 }

 public boolean IsInt_ByJonas(String str)
 {
     if (str == null) {
             return false;
     }
     int length = str.length();
     if (length == 0) {
             return false;
     }
     int i = 0;
     if (str.charAt(0) == '-') {
             if (length == 1) {
                     return false;
             }
             i = 1;
     }
     for (; i < length; i++) {
             char c = str.charAt(i);
             if (c <= '/' || c >= ':') {
                     return false;
             }
     }
     return true;
 }

Output:

ByException: 31

ByRegex: 453 (note: re-compiling the pattern every time)

ByJonas: 16

I do agree that Jonas K's solution is the most robust too. Looks like he wins :)

org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.isNumeric 

though Java's standard lib really misses such utility functions

I think that Apache Commons is a "must have" for every Java programmer

too bad it isn't ported to Java5 yet

Since there's possibility that people still visit here and will be biased against Regex after the benchmarks... So i'm gonna give an updated version of the benchmark, with a compiled version of the Regex. Which opposed to the previous benchmarks, this one shows Regex solution actually has consistently good performance.

Copied from Bill the Lizard and updated with compiled version:

private final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("^-?\\d+$");

public void runTests() {
    String big_int = "1234567890";
    String non_int = "1234XY7890";

    long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByException(big_int);
    long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("ByException - integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByException(non_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("ByException - non-integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByRegex(big_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("\nByRegex - integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByRegex(non_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("ByRegex - non-integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByCompiledRegex(big_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("\nByCompiledRegex - integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByCompiledRegex(non_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("ByCompiledRegex - non-integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);


    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByJonas(big_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("\nByJonas - integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            IsInt_ByJonas(non_int);
    endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    System.out.print("ByJonas - non-integer data: ");
    System.out.println(endTime - startTime);
}

private boolean IsInt_ByException(String str)
{
    try
    {
        Integer.parseInt(str);
        return true;
    }
    catch(NumberFormatException nfe)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

private boolean IsInt_ByRegex(String str)
{
    return str.matches("^-?\\d+$");
}

private boolean IsInt_ByCompiledRegex(String str) {
    return pattern.matcher(str).find();
}

public boolean IsInt_ByJonas(String str)
{
    if (str == null) {
            return false;
    }
    int length = str.length();
    if (length == 0) {
            return false;
    }
    int i = 0;
    if (str.charAt(0) == '-') {
            if (length == 1) {
                    return false;
            }
            i = 1;
    }
    for (; i < length; i++) {
            char c = str.charAt(i);
            if (c <= '/' || c >= ':') {
                    return false;
            }
    }
    return true;
}

Results:

ByException - integer data: 45
ByException - non-integer data: 465

ByRegex - integer data: 272
ByRegex - non-integer data: 131

ByCompiledRegex - integer data: 45
ByCompiledRegex - non-integer data: 26

ByJonas - integer data: 8
ByJonas - non-integer data: 2

It partly depend on what you mean by "can be converted to an integer".

If you mean "can be converted into an int in Java" then the answer from Jonas is a good start, but doesn't quite finish the job. It would pass 999999999999999999999999999999 for example. I would add the normal try/catch call from your own question at the end of the method.

The character-by-character checks will efficiently reject "not an integer at all" cases, leaving "it's an integer but Java can't handle it" cases to be caught by the slower exception route. You could do this bit by hand too, but it would be a lot more complicated.