Python: How to convert integer to string (5 Ways)

In this article we will discuss 5 different ways to convert a integer to string in python.

Using str() to convert an int to string in python

Python provides a function str(object). It accepts an object as an argument and returns a string representation of that object. So, if we pass the an integer as an argument to the str() function, then it will return a string representation of that integer.

So, let’s use this to convert int to string i.e.

# int value
num = 51

# Convert an int to string
value = str(num)

print('Value: ', value)
print('Type : ', type(value))

Output:

Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>

Type of variable value is <class ‘str’>, which confirms that integer was successfully converted to a string value.

Using __str__() to convert an integer to string in python

str(object) function internally calls the __str__() on the passed argument object. So, we can directly call the __str__() on the object. In our case we passed integer to str() function in previous example. Instead of it, we can directly call the __str__() function on int object to get a string representation of the integer i.e.

# int value
num = 51

# Convert an int to string
value = num.__str__()

print('Value: ', value)
print('Type : ', type(value))

Output:

Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>

Type of variable value is <class ‘str’>, which confirms that integer was successfully converted to a string value.

Using f-strings to convert an int to string in python

f-strings were introduced in python 3.6. It is represented by string literals that have an f at the beginning and curly braces containing  expressions after that. Variables in the expression will be replaced by values during evaluation at runtime.

So, let’s use this to convert int to string i.e.

# int value
num = 51

# Convert an int to string
value = f'{num}'

print('Value: ', value)
print('Type : ', type(value))

Output:

Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>

It is the most simple and fastest solution.

Type of variable value is <class ‘str’>, which confirms that integer was successfully converted to a string value.

Using format() to convert an integer to string in python

str class in python provides a format() function. It converts the string by replacing the placeholders defined inside {} to values of the  variables. So, let’s use this to convert int to string i.e.

# int value
num = 51

# Convert an int to string
value = "{}".format(num)

print('Value: ', value)
print('Type : ', type(value))

Output:

Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>

Type of variable value is <class ‘str’>, which confirms that integer was successfully converted to a string value.

Using positional formatting to convert an int to string in python

This is the oldest approach. Using positional formatting, we can insert objects inside a string.
So, let’s use this to convert int to string i.e.

# int value
num = 51

# Convert an int to string
value = "%s" % num

print('Value: ', value)
print('Type : ', type(value))

Output:

Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>

Type of variable value is <class ‘str’>, which confirms that integer was successfully converted to a string value.

So, these were the 5 different ways to convert an integer to string in python.

The complete example is as follows,

def main():

    print('*** Convert an int to string in python ***')

    print('*** Using str() to convert an integer to string in python ***')

    # int value
    num = 51

    # Convert an int to string
    value = str(num)

    print('Value: ', value)
    print('Type : ', type(value))

    print('*** Using __str__() to convert an integer to string in python ***')

    # int value
    num = 51

    # Convert an int to string
    value = num.__str__()

    print('Value: ', value)
    print('Type : ', type(value))

    print('*** Using f-string to convert an integer to string in python ***')

    # int value
    num = 51

    # Convert an int to string
    value = f'{num}'

    print('Value: ', value)
    print('Type : ', type(value))

    print('*** Using format() to convert an integer to string in python ***')

    # int value
    num = 51

    # Convert an int to string
    value = "{}".format(num)

    print('Value: ', value)
    print('Type : ', type(value))

    print('*** Using positional formatting to convert an integer to string in python ***')

    # int value
    num = 51

    # Convert an int to string
    value = "%s" % num

    print('Value: ', value)
    print('Type : ', type(value))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Output:

*** Convert an int to string in python ***
*** Using str() to convert an integer to string in python ***
Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>
*** Using __str__() to convert an integer to string in python ***
Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>
*** Using f-string to convert an integer to string in python ***
Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>
*** Using format() to convert an integer to string in python ***
Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>
*** Using positional formatting to convert an integer to string in python ***
Value:  51
Type :  <class 'str'>