How to convert Char to Int in Haskell?

Question

I need to convert a Char to an Int in Haskell? For example:

a = '\x2' -- a == 2
          -- type of a should be Char
b = charToInt a -- b == 2
                -- type of b should be Int

How can I achieve this?

Solution 1

You can use the ord function to convert a character to its integer (ordinal) representation.

chr goes the other direction.

> ord '\x2'­
  => 2
> chr 97
  => 'a'
> ord (chr 42)
  => 42

Solution 2

You can use fromEnum or Data.Char.ord.

Comments

[Thomas M. DuBuisson]

Discover and use hoogle.

[newacct]

just to add, you have to import Char or import Data.Char in order to use those