How can I convert a std::string to int?

std::istringstream ss(thestring);
ss >> thevalue;

To be fully correct you'll want to check the error flags.

The possible options are described below:

1. First option: sscanf()

    #include <cstdio>
    #include <string>

        int i;
        float f;
        double d;
        std::string str;

        // string -> integer
        if(sscanf(str.c_str(), "%d", &i) != 1)
            // error management

        // string -> float
        if(sscanf(str.c_str(), "%f", &f) != 1)
            // error management

        // string -> double 
        if(sscanf(str.c_str(), "%lf", &d) != 1)
            // error management

This is an error (also shown by cppcheck) because "scanf without field width limits can crash with huge input data on some versions of libc" (see here, and here).

2. Second option: std::sto*()

    #include <iostream>
    #include <string>

        int i;
        float f;
        double d;
        std::string str;

        try {
            // string -> integer
            int i = std::stoi(str);

            // string -> float
            float f = std::stof(str);

            // string -> double 
            double d = std::stod(str);
        } catch (...) {
            // error management
        }   

This solution is short and elegant, but it is available only on on C++11 compliant compilers.

3. Third option: sstreams

    #include <string>
    #include <sstream>

        int i;
        float f;
        double d;
        std::string str;

        // string -> integer
        std::istringstream ( str ) >> i;

        // string -> float
        std::istringstream ( str ) >> f;

        // string -> double 
        std::istringstream ( str ) >> d;

        // error management ??

However, with this solution is hard to distinguish between bad input (see here).

4. Fourth option: Boost's lexical_cast

    #include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
    #include <string>

        std::string str;

        try {
            int i = boost::lexical_cast<int>( str.c_str());
            float f = boost::lexical_cast<int>( str.c_str());
            double d = boost::lexical_cast<int>( str.c_str());
            } catch( boost::bad_lexical_cast const& ) {
                // Error management
        }

However, this is just a wrapper of sstream, and the documentation suggests to use sstream for better error management (see here).

5. Fifth option: strto*()

This solution is very long, due to error management, and it is described here. Since no function returns a plain int, a conversion is needed in case of integer (see here for how this conversion can be achieved).

6. Sixth option: Qt

    #include <QString>
    #include <string>

        bool ok;
        std::string;

        int i = QString::fromStdString(str).toInt(&ok);
        if (!ok)
            // Error management

        float f = QString::fromStdString(str).toFloat(&ok);
        if (!ok)
            // Error management 

        double d = QString::fromStdString(str).toDouble(&ok);
        if (!ok)
    // Error management     

Conclusions

Summing up, the best solution is C++11 std::stoi() or, as a second option, the use of Qt libraries. All other solutions are discouraged or buggy.

use the atoi function to convert the string to an integer:

string a = "25";

int b = atoi(a.c_str());

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cstdlib/atoi/

What about Boost.Lexical_cast?

Here is their example:

The following example treats command line arguments as a sequence of numeric data:

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    using boost::lexical_cast;
    using boost::bad_lexical_cast;

    std::vector<short> args;

    while(*++argv)
    {
        try
        {
            args.push_back(lexical_cast<short>(*argv));
        }
        catch(bad_lexical_cast &)
        {
            args.push_back(0);
        }
    }
    ...
}

Admittedly, my solution wouldn't work for negative integers, but it will extract all positive integers from input text containing integers. It makes use of numeric_only locale:

int main() {
        int num;
        std::cin.imbue(std::locale(std::locale(), new numeric_only()));
        while ( std::cin >> num)
             std::cout << num << std::endl;
        return 0;
}

Input text:

 the format (-5) or (25) etc... some text.. and then.. 7987...78hjh.hhjg9878

Output integers:

 5
25
7987
78
9878

The class numeric_only is defined as:

struct numeric_only: std::ctype<char> 
{
    numeric_only(): std::ctype<char>(get_table()) {}

    static std::ctype_base::mask const* get_table()
    {
        static std::vector<std::ctype_base::mask> 
            rc(std::ctype<char>::table_size,std::ctype_base::space);

        std::fill(&rc['0'], &rc[':'], std::ctype_base::digit);
        return &rc[0];
    }
};

Complete online demo : http://ideone.com/dRWSj