representing strings with certain integers

Question

I am trying to create a system that gets a string from the user and converts it to an integer. I want an integer representation for each letter, that way any string can be converted to an integer. I have tried putting each character of the string into an array, and then checking one by one for every letter. That method became to messy, so I was wondering if there was also a shorter way of doing this.

`String.hashCode()`? (Just don't expect any scheme you come up with to produce a *unique* integer, unless you're willing to go with `BigInteger`) — nneonneo, Jun 10 '14 at 15:34
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16458564/convert-string-to-ascii-value-in-java — RobEarl, Jun 10 '14 at 15:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '14 at 15:44

2

I want an integer representation for each letter

Use String to get Character Array by the use of "yourString".toCharArray();
Use ForEach loop to get int for every character.

for(char c:yourstring.trim().toCharArray())
{
    int a=(int)c;
    arrayList.add(a); //store integers to arrayList or array as you wish
}

edited Jun 10 '14 at 15:44

Anubian Noob

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answered Jun 10 '14 at 15:39

akash

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This will hardly be unique every time... – Anubian Noob Jun 10 '14 at 15:41
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@AnubianNoob OP never said the integer had to be unique at any point – Grambot Jun 10 '14 at 15:42
1

I guess it works, but keep in mind that it's not unique. Also it can overflow. Just things to keep in mind, this works fine. – Anubian Noob Jun 10 '14 at 15:44

selena · Answer 2 · 2014-06-10T15:55:40.897

1

If you want to convert a string to an integer you can try doing the following:

 int c = Integer.parseInt("Your String");

For converting a letter to a string you can try the following:

String word = "abcd";
StringBuilder build = new StringBuilder();

for (char c : word.toCharArray()) {
    build.append((char)(c - 'a' + 1));
 }

So basically you subtract to find the integer value of the letter. NOTE: this only works for strings that are all in lower case. If you have letters in upper case you will have to convert them to lower case before applying the above.

edited Jun 10 '14 at 15:55

answered Jun 10 '14 at 15:35

selena

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Don't forget that this method throws a NumberFormatException, so the statement must be enclosed in a try-catch block or the method that this line would be in must throw NumberFormatException. – jluckin Jun 10 '14 at 15:39
This will throw an exception. The asker's string contains letters. – ban-geoengineering Jun 10 '14 at 15:43

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 10 '14 at 15:47

1

Maybe the getNumericValue() method of Character is what you are after? You could use it in a loop.

answered Jun 10 '14 at 15:47

ban-geoengineering

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representing strings with certain integers

3 Answers3