C Program To Write Your Own atoi() Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report The atoi() function in C takes a string (which represents an integer) as an argument and returns its value of type int. So basically the function is used to convert a string argument to an integer. Syntax: int atoi(const char strn) Parameters: The function accepts one parameter strn which refers to the string argument that is needed to be converted into its integer equivalent. Return Value: If strn is a valid input, then the function returns the equivalent integer number for the passed string number. If no valid conversion takes place, then the function returns zero. Example: C #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> int main() { int val; char strn1[] = "12546"; val = atoi(strn1); printf("String value = %s ", strn1); printf("Integer value = %d ", val); char strn2[] = "GeeksforGeeks"; val = atoi(strn2); printf("String value = %s ", strn2); printf("Integer value = %d ", val); return (0); } OutputString value = 12546 Integer value = 12546 String value = GeeksforGeeks Integer value = 0 Time Complexity: O(1) Auxiliary Space: O(1) Now let's understand various ways in which one can create their own atoi() function supported by various conditions: Recommended: Please solve it on "PRACTICE" first, before moving on to the solution. Approach 1: Following is a simple implementation of conversion without considering any special case. Initialize the result as 0.Start from the first character and update result for every character.For every character update the answer as result = result * 10 + (s[i] - '0') C // Program to implement atoi() in C #include <stdio.h> // A simple atoi() function int myAtoi(char* str) { // Initialize result int res = 0; // Iterate through all characters // of input string and update result // take ASCII character of corresponding digit and // subtract the code from '0' to get numerical // value and multiply res by 10 to shuffle // digits left to update running total for (int i = 0; str[i] != ''; ++i) res = res * 10 + str[i] - '0'; // return result. return res; } // Driver Code int main() { char str[] = "89789"; // Function call int val = myAtoi(str); printf("%d ", val); return 0; } Output89789 Time Complexity: O(N) Auxiliary Space: O(1) Approach 2: This implementation handles the negative numbers. If the first character is '-' then store the sign as negative and then convert the rest of the string to number using the previous approach while multiplying sign with it. C // A C program for // implementation of atoi #include <stdio.h> // A simple atoi() function int myAtoi(char* str) { // Initialize result int res = 0; // Initialize sign as positive int sign = 1; // Initialize index of first digit int i = 0; // If number is negative, // then update sign if (str[0] == '-') { sign = -1; // Also update index of first digit i++; } // Iterate through all digits // and update the result for (; str[i] != ''; ++i) res = res * 10 + str[i] - '0'; // Return result with sign return sign * res; } // Driver code int main() { char str[] = "-123"; // Function call int val = myAtoi(str); printf("%d ", val); return 0; } Output-123 Time Complexity: O(N) Auxiliary Space: O(1) Approach 3: This implementation handles various type of errors. If str is NULL or str contains non-numeric characters then return 0 as the number is not valid. Output -134 Approach 4: Four corner cases needs to be handled: Discards all leading whitespacesSign of the numberOverflowInvalid input To remove the leading whitespaces run a loop until a character of the digit is reached. If the number is greater than or equal to INT_MAX/10. Then return INT_MAX if the sign is positive and return INT_MIN if the sign is negative. The other cases are handled in previous approaches. Dry Run: Below is the implementation of the above approach: C // A simple C++ program for // implementation of atoi #include <stdio.h> #include <limits.h> int myAtoi(const char* str) { int sign = 1, base = 0, i = 0; // if whitespaces then ignore. while (str[i] == ' ') { i++; } // sign of number if (str[i] == '-' || str[i] == '+') { sign = 1 - 2 * (str[i++] == '-'); } // checking for valid input while (str[i] >= '0' && str[i] <= '9') { // handling overflow test case if (base > INT_MAX / 10 || (base == INT_MAX / 10 && str[i] - '0' > 7)) { if (sign == 1) return INT_MAX; else return INT_MIN; } base = 10 * base + (str[i++] - '0'); } return base * sign; } // Driver Code int main() { char str[] = " -123"; // Functional Code int val = myAtoi(str); printf("%d ", val); return 0; } // This code is contributed by Yogesh shukla. Output -123 Complexity Analysis for all the above Approaches: Time Complexity: O(n). Only one traversal of string is needed.Space Complexity: O(1). As no extra space is required. Recursive program for atoi(). Exercise: Write your won atof() that takes a string (which represents an floating point value) as an argument and returns its value as double. Please refer complete article on Write your own atoi() for more details! Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Analysis of Algorithms K kartik Follow Improve Article Tags : Strings C Programs DSA Microsoft Amazon Adobe Morgan Stanley Payu Code Brew +5 More Practice Tags : AdobeAmazonCode BrewMicrosoftMorgan StanleyPayuStrings +3 More Similar Reads Basics & PrerequisitesLogic Building ProblemsLogic building is about creating clear, step-by-step methods to solve problems using simple rules and principles. 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