Coder Perfect

In C#, what is the quickest way to see if a string contains only digits?

Problem

RegEx, int.parse, tryparse, looping, and others are some of the methods I’ve learned to check if a string contains just digits.

Is there anyone who can tell me the quickest way to check?

I only need to CHECK the value; I don’t need to parse it.

I refer to ASCII digits as “digits”: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.

This is not the same as Identify if a string is a number, because this question is not only about how to identify, but also about how to do it quickly.

Asked by Nahum

Solution #1

bool IsDigitsOnly(string str)
{
    foreach (char c in str)
    {
        if (c < '0' || c > '9')
            return false;
    }

    return true;
}

This is most likely the quickest method.

Answered by jakobbotsch

Solution #2

LINQ could be used to accomplish this:

return str.All(char.IsDigit);

Answered by Uday

Solution #3

Based on 1000000 parses of the same string, here are some benchmarks:

The following statistics have been updated for the release:

IsDigitsOnly: 384588
TryParse:     639583
Regex:        1329571

Here’s the code; it appears that IsDigitsOnly is the faster option:

class Program
{
    private static Regex regex = new Regex("^[0-9]+$", RegexOptions.Compiled);

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Stopwatch watch = new Stopwatch();
        string test = int.MaxValue.ToString();
        int value;

        watch.Start();
        for(int i=0; i< 1000000; i++)
        {
            int.TryParse(test, out value);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("TryParse: "+watch.ElapsedTicks);

        watch.Reset();
        watch.Start();
        for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
        {
            IsDigitsOnly(test);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("IsDigitsOnly: " + watch.ElapsedTicks);

        watch.Reset();
        watch.Start();
        for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
        {
            regex.IsMatch(test);
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("Regex: " + watch.ElapsedTicks);

        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static bool IsDigitsOnly(string str)
    {
        foreach (char c in str)
        {
            if (c < '0' || c > '9')
                return false;
        }

        return true;
    }
}

It’s worth mentioning that TryParse accepts leading and trailing whitespace, as well as culture-specific symbols. It also has a string length limit.

Answered by TheCodeKing

Solution #4

IsDigit(char c) is already present in the char and performs the following:

 public static bool IsDigit(char c)
    {
      if (!char.IsLatin1(c))
        return CharUnicodeInfo.GetUnicodeCategory(c) == UnicodeCategory.DecimalDigitNumber;
      if ((int) c >= 48)
        return (int) c <= 57;
      else
        return false;
    }

This is how it’s done:

var theString = "839278";
bool digitsOnly = theString.All(char.IsDigit);

Answered by flayn

Solution #5

Using only one comparison per char and for instead of foreach can save you roughly 20% of the time:

bool isDigits(string s) 
{ 
    if (s == null || s == "") return false; 

    for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++) 
        if ((s[i] ^ '0') > 9) 
            return false; 

    return true; 
}

Testing code (always profile because the results are dependent on hardware, versions, and order, among other factors):

static bool isDigitsFr(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++) if (s[i] < '0' || s[i] > '9') return false; return true; }
static bool isDigitsFu(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++) if ((uint)(s[i] - '0') > 9) return false; return true; }
static bool isDigitsFx(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++) if ((s[i] ^ '0') > 9) return false; return true; }
static bool isDigitsEr(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; foreach (char c in s) if (c < '0' || c > '9') return false; return true; }
static bool isDigitsEu(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; foreach (char c in s) if ((uint)(c - '0') > 9) return false; return true; }
static bool isDigitsEx(string s) { if (s == null || s == "") return false; foreach (char c in s) if ((c ^ '0') > 9) return false; return true; }
static void test()
{
    var w = new Stopwatch(); bool b; var s = int.MaxValue + ""; int r = 12345678*2; var ss = new SortedSet<string>(); //s = string.Concat(Enumerable.Range(0, 127).Select(i => ((char)i ^ '0') < 10 ? 1 : 0));
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = s.All(char.IsDigit); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + ".All .IsDigit"); 
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = s.All(c => c >= '0' && c <= '9'); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + ".All <>"); 
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = s.All(c => (c ^ '0') < 10); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " .All ^"); 
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsFr(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " for     <>");
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsFu(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " for     -");
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsFx(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " for     ^");
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsEr(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " foreach <>");
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsEu(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " foreach -");
    w.Restart(); for (int i = 0; i < r; i++) b = isDigitsEx(s); w.Stop(); ss.Add(w.Elapsed + " foreach ^");
    MessageBox.Show(string.Join("\n", ss)); return;
}

On an Intel i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz with VS 2015.NET 4.6.1 Release mode with optimizations enabled, the following results were obtained:

time    method          ratio
0.7776  for     ^       1.0000 
0.7984  foreach -       1.0268 
0.8066  foreach ^       1.0372 
0.8940  for     -       1.1497 
0.8976  for     <>      1.1543 
0.9456  foreach <>      1.2160 
4.4559  .All <>         5.7303 
4.7791  .All ^          6.1458 
4.8539  .All. IsDigit   6.2421 

If you’re tempted to use the quicker ways, keep in mind that

Answered by Slai

Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7461080/fastest-way-to-check-if-string-contains-only-digits-in-c-sharp