What is the difference between int and int64 in Go?

I have a string containing an integer (which has been read from a file).

I'm trying to convert the string to an int using strconv.ParseInt(). ParseInt requires that I provide a bitsize (bit sizes 0, 8, 16, 32, and 64 correspond to int, int8, int16, int32, and int64).

The integer read from the file is small (i.e. it should fit in a normal int). If I pass a bitsize of 0, however, I get a result of type int64 (presumably because I'm running on a 64-bit OS).

Why is this happening? How do I just get a normal int? (If someone has a quick primer on when and why I should use the different int types, that would awesome!)

Edit: I can convert the int64 to a normal int using int([i64_var]). But I still don't understand why ParseInt() is giving me an int64 when I'm requesting a bitsize of 0.

Solution 1:

func ParseInt(s string, base int, bitSize int) (i int64, err error)

ParseInt always returns int64

bitSize defines range of values. If the value corresponding to s cannot be represented by a signed integer of the given size, err.Err = ErrRange.

http://golang.org/pkg/strconv/#ParseInt

type int int

int is a signed integer type that is at least 32 bits in size. It is a distinct type, however, and not an alias for, say, int32.

http://golang.org/pkg/builtin/#int

So int could be bigger than 32 bit in future or on some systems like int in C.

I guess on some systems int64 might be faster than int32 because that system only works with 64 bit integers.

Here is example of error when bitSize is 8

http://play.golang.org/p/_osjMqL6Nj

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "strconv"
)

func main() {
    i, err := strconv.ParseInt("123456", 10, 8)
    fmt.Println(i, err)
}

Solution 2:

Package strconv

func ParseInt

func ParseInt(s string, base int, bitSize int) (i int64, err error)

ParseInt interprets a string s in the given base (2 to 36) and returns the corresponding value i. If base == 0, the base is implied by the string's prefix: base 16 for "0x", base 8 for "0", and base 10 otherwise.

The bitSize argument specifies the integer type that the result must fit into. Bit sizes 0, 8, 16, 32, and 64 correspond to int, int8, int16, int32, and int64.

The errors that ParseInt returns have concrete type *NumError and include err.Num = s. If s is empty or contains invalid digits, err.Err = ErrSyntax; if the value corresponding to s cannot be represented by a signed integer of the given size, err.Err = ErrRange.

ParseInt always returns an int64 value. Depending on bitSize, this value will fit into int, int8, int16, int32, or int64. If the value cannot be represented by a signed integer of the size given by bitSize, then err.Err = ErrRange.

The Go Programming Language Specification

Numeric types

The value of an n-bit integer is n bits wide and represented using two's complement arithmetic.

int8        the set of all signed  8-bit integers (-128 to 127)
int16       the set of all signed 16-bit integers (-32768 to 32767)
int32       the set of all signed 32-bit integers (-2147483648 to 2147483647)
int64       the set of all signed 64-bit integers (-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807)

There is also a set of predeclared numeric types with implementation-specific sizes:

uint     either 32 or 64 bits
int      same size as uint

int is either 32 or 64 bits, depending on the implementation. Usually it's 32 bits for 32-bit compilers and 64 bits for 64-bit compilers.

To find out the size of an int or uint, use strconv.IntSize.

Package strconv

Constants

const IntSize = intSize

IntSize is the size in bits of an int or uint value.

For example,

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "runtime"
    "strconv"
)

func main() {
    fmt.Println(runtime.Compiler, runtime.GOARCH, runtime.GOOS)
    fmt.Println(strconv.IntSize)
}

Output:

gc amd64 linux
64