primitive types - Converting String to Number in Java

Question

How can i convert a string to a abstract number, provided string is any valid number in java (say int, long, double etc).

I will not know the type of number in the string, so i can't use specific primitive parsing (like Integer.parseInt, Long.parseLong etc). Is there any generic way to convert it?

Eg:

• String -> Number
• "23423" -> 23423
• "34.3" -> 34.3
• "45364573747546" -> 45364573747546

Answer 1

Use NumberFormat. Number cannot be instantiated because it is an abstract class.

 Number number = NumberFormat.getInstance().parse(string);