[python] How to find length of digits in an integer?

In Python, how do you find the number of digits in an integer?

def digits(n)
    count = 0
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    
    if n < 0:
        n *= -1

    while (n >= 10**count):
        count += 1
        n += n%10

    return count

print(digits(25))   # Should print 2
print(digits(144))  # Should print 3
print(digits(1000)) # Should print 4
print(digits(0))    # Should print 1

For posterity, no doubt by far the slowest solution to this problem:

def num_digits(num, number_of_calls=1):
    "Returns the number of digits of an integer num."
    if num == 0 or num == -1:
        return 1 if number_of_calls == 1 else 0
    else:
        return 1 + num_digits(num/10, number_of_calls+1)

It can be done for integers quickly by using:

len(str(abs(1234567890)))

Which gets the length of the string of the absolute value of "1234567890"

abs returns the number WITHOUT any negatives (only the magnitude of the number), str casts/converts it to a string and len returns the string length of that string.

If you want it to work for floats, you can use either of the following:

# Ignore all after decimal place
len(str(abs(0.1234567890)).split(".")[0])

# Ignore just the decimal place
len(str(abs(0.1234567890)))-1

For future reference.

It's been several years since this question was asked, but I have compiled a benchmark of several methods to calculate the length of an integer.

def libc_size(i): 
    return libc.snprintf(buf, 100, c_char_p(b'%i'), i) # equivalent to `return snprintf(buf, 100, "%i", i);`

def str_size(i):
    return len(str(i)) # Length of `i` as a string

def math_size(i):
    return 1 + math.floor(math.log10(i)) # 1 + floor of log10 of i

def exp_size(i):
    return int("{:.5e}".format(i).split("e")[1]) + 1 # e.g. `1e10` -> `10` + 1 -> 11

def mod_size(i):
    return len("%i" % i) # Uses string modulo instead of str(i)

def fmt_size(i):
    return len("{0}".format(i)) # Same as above but str.format

(the libc function requires some setup, which I haven't included)

size_exp is thanks to Brian Preslopsky, size_str is thanks to GeekTantra, and size_math is thanks to John La Rooy

Here are the results:

Time for libc size:      1.2204 µs
Time for string size:    309.41 ns
Time for math size:      329.54 ns
Time for exp size:       1.4902 µs
Time for mod size:       249.36 ns
Time for fmt size:       336.63 ns
In order of speed (fastest first):
+ mod_size (1.000000x)
+ str_size (1.240835x)
+ math_size (1.321577x)
+ fmt_size (1.350007x)
+ libc_size (4.894290x)
+ exp_size (5.976219x)

(Disclaimer: the function is run on inputs 1 to 1,000,000)

Here are the results for sys.maxsize - 100000 to sys.maxsize:

Time for libc size:      1.4686 µs
Time for string size:    395.76 ns
Time for math size:      485.94 ns
Time for exp size:       1.6826 µs
Time for mod size:       364.25 ns
Time for fmt size:       453.06 ns
In order of speed (fastest first):
+ mod_size (1.000000x)
+ str_size (1.086498x)
+ fmt_size (1.243817x)
+ math_size (1.334066x)
+ libc_size (4.031780x)
+ exp_size (4.619188x)

As you can see, mod_size (len("%i" % i)) is the fastest, slightly faster than using str(i) and significantly faster than others.

Assuming you are asking for the largest number you can store in an integer, the value is implementation dependent. I suggest that you don't think in that way when using python. In any case, quite a large value can be stored in a python 'integer'. Remember, Python uses duck typing!

Edit: I gave my answer before the clarification that the asker wanted the number of digits. For that, I agree with the method suggested by the accepted answer. Nothing more to add!

Top answers are saying mathlog10 faster but I got results that suggest len(str(n)) is faster.

arr = []
for i in range(5000000):
    arr.append(random.randint(0,12345678901234567890))

%%timeit

for n in arr:
    len(str(n))
//2.72 s ± 304 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)

%%timeit

for n in arr:
    int(math.log10(n))+1
//3.13 s ± 545 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)

Besides, I haven't added logic to the math way to return accurate results and I can only imagine it slows it even more.

I have no idea how the previous answers proved the maths way is faster though.

My code for the same is as follows;i have used the log10 method:

from math import *

def digit_count(number):

if number>1 and round(log10(number))>=log10(number) and number%10!=0 :
    return round(log10(number))
elif  number>1 and round(log10(number))<log10(number) and number%10!=0:
    return round(log10(number))+1
elif number%10==0 and number!=0:
    return int(log10(number)+1)
elif number==1 or number==0:
    return 1

I had to specify in case of 1 and 0 because log10(1)=0 and log10(0)=ND and hence the condition mentioned isn't satisfied. However, this code works only for whole numbers.

from math import log10
digits = lambda n: ((n==0) and 1) or int(log10(abs(n)))+1

Let the number be n then the number of digits in n is given by:

math.floor(math.log10(n))+1

Note that this will give correct answers for +ve integers < 10e15. Beyond that the precision limits of the return type of math.log10 kicks in and the answer may be off by 1. I would simply use len(str(n)) beyond that; this requires O(log(n)) time which is same as iterating over powers of 10.

Thanks to @SetiVolkylany for bringing my attenstion to this limitation. Its amazing how seemingly correct solutions have caveats in implementation details.

Here is a bulky but fast version :

def nbdigit ( x ):
    if x >= 10000000000000000 : # 17 -
        return len( str( x ))
    if x < 100000000 : # 1 - 8
        if x < 10000 : # 1 - 4
            if x < 100             : return (x >= 10)+1 
            else                   : return (x >= 1000)+3
        else: # 5 - 8                                                 
            if x < 1000000         : return (x >= 100000)+5 
            else                   : return (x >= 10000000)+7
    else: # 9 - 16 
        if x < 1000000000000 : # 9 - 12
            if x < 10000000000     : return (x >= 1000000000)+9 
            else                   : return (x >= 100000000000)+11
        else: # 13 - 16
            if x < 100000000000000 : return (x >= 10000000000000)+13 
            else                   : return (x >= 1000000000000000)+15

Only 5 comparisons for not too big numbers. On my computer it is about 30% faster than the math.log10 version and 5% faster than the len( str()) one. Ok... no so attractive if you don't use it furiously.

And here is the set of numbers I used to test/measure my function:

n = [ int( (i+1)**( 17/7. )) for i in xrange( 1000000 )] + [0,10**16-1,10**16,10**16+1]

NB: it does not manage negative numbers, but the adaptation is easy...

Well, without converting to string I would do something like:

def lenDigits(x): 
    """
    Assumes int(x)
    """

    x = abs(x)

    if x < 10:
        return 1

    return 1 + lenDigits(x / 10)

Minimalist recursion FTW

>>> a=12345
>>> a.__str__().__len__()
5

n = 3566002020360505
count = 0
while(n>0):
  count += 1
  n = n //10
print(f"The number of digits in the number are: {count}")

output: The number of digits in the number are: 16

All math.log10 solutions will give you problems.

math.log10 is fast but gives problem when your number is greater than 999999999999997. This is because the float have too many .9s, causing the result to round up.

The solution is to use a while counter method for numbers above that threshold.

To make this even faster, create 10^16, 10^17 so on so forth and store as variables in a list. That way, it is like a table lookup.

def getIntegerPlaces(theNumber):
    if theNumber <= 999999999999997:
        return int(math.log10(theNumber)) + 1
    else:
        counter = 15
        while theNumber >= 10**counter:
            counter += 1
        return counter

Count the number of digits w/o convert integer to a string:

x=123
x=abs(x)
i = 0
while x >= 10**i:
    i +=1
# i is the number of digits

As mentioned the dear user @Calvintwr, the function math.log10 has problem in a number outside of a range [-999999999999997, 999999999999997], where we get floating point errors. I had this problem with the JavaScript (the Google V8 and the NodeJS) and the C (the GNU GCC compiler), so a 'purely mathematically' solution is impossible here.

Based on this gist and the answer the dear user @Calvintwr

import math


def get_count_digits(number: int):
    """Return number of digits in a number."""

    if number == 0:
        return 1

    number = abs(number)

    if number <= 999999999999997:
        return math.floor(math.log10(number)) + 1

    count = 0
    while number:
        count += 1
        number //= 10
    return count

I tested it on numbers with length up to 20 (inclusive) and all right. It must be enough, because the length max integer number on a 64-bit system is 19 (len(str(sys.maxsize)) == 19).

assert get_count_digits(-99999999999999999999) == 20
assert get_count_digits(-10000000000000000000) == 20
assert get_count_digits(-9999999999999999999) == 19
assert get_count_digits(-1000000000000000000) == 19
assert get_count_digits(-999999999999999999) == 18
assert get_count_digits(-100000000000000000) == 18
assert get_count_digits(-99999999999999999) == 17
assert get_count_digits(-10000000000000000) == 17
assert get_count_digits(-9999999999999999) == 16
assert get_count_digits(-1000000000000000) == 16
assert get_count_digits(-999999999999999) == 15
assert get_count_digits(-100000000000000) == 15
assert get_count_digits(-99999999999999) == 14
assert get_count_digits(-10000000000000) == 14
assert get_count_digits(-9999999999999) == 13
assert get_count_digits(-1000000000000) == 13
assert get_count_digits(-999999999999) == 12
assert get_count_digits(-100000000000) == 12
assert get_count_digits(-99999999999) == 11
assert get_count_digits(-10000000000) == 11
assert get_count_digits(-9999999999) == 10
assert get_count_digits(-1000000000) == 10
assert get_count_digits(-999999999) == 9
assert get_count_digits(-100000000) == 9
assert get_count_digits(-99999999) == 8
assert get_count_digits(-10000000) == 8
assert get_count_digits(-9999999) == 7
assert get_count_digits(-1000000) == 7
assert get_count_digits(-999999) == 6
assert get_count_digits(-100000) == 6
assert get_count_digits(-99999) == 5
assert get_count_digits(-10000) == 5
assert get_count_digits(-9999) == 4
assert get_count_digits(-1000) == 4
assert get_count_digits(-999) == 3
assert get_count_digits(-100) == 3
assert get_count_digits(-99) == 2
assert get_count_digits(-10) == 2
assert get_count_digits(-9) == 1
assert get_count_digits(-1) == 1
assert get_count_digits(0) == 1
assert get_count_digits(1) == 1
assert get_count_digits(9) == 1
assert get_count_digits(10) == 2
assert get_count_digits(99) == 2
assert get_count_digits(100) == 3
assert get_count_digits(999) == 3
assert get_count_digits(1000) == 4
assert get_count_digits(9999) == 4
assert get_count_digits(10000) == 5
assert get_count_digits(99999) == 5
assert get_count_digits(100000) == 6
assert get_count_digits(999999) == 6
assert get_count_digits(1000000) == 7
assert get_count_digits(9999999) == 7
assert get_count_digits(10000000) == 8
assert get_count_digits(99999999) == 8
assert get_count_digits(100000000) == 9
assert get_count_digits(999999999) == 9
assert get_count_digits(1000000000) == 10
assert get_count_digits(9999999999) == 10
assert get_count_digits(10000000000) == 11
assert get_count_digits(99999999999) == 11
assert get_count_digits(100000000000) == 12
assert get_count_digits(999999999999) == 12
assert get_count_digits(1000000000000) == 13
assert get_count_digits(9999999999999) == 13
assert get_count_digits(10000000000000) == 14
assert get_count_digits(99999999999999) == 14
assert get_count_digits(100000000000000) == 15
assert get_count_digits(999999999999999) == 15
assert get_count_digits(1000000000000000) == 16
assert get_count_digits(9999999999999999) == 16
assert get_count_digits(10000000000000000) == 17
assert get_count_digits(99999999999999999) == 17
assert get_count_digits(100000000000000000) == 18
assert get_count_digits(999999999999999999) == 18
assert get_count_digits(1000000000000000000) == 19
assert get_count_digits(9999999999999999999) == 19
assert get_count_digits(10000000000000000000) == 20
assert get_count_digits(99999999999999999999) == 20

All example of codes tested with the Python 3.5

Without conversion to string

import math
digits = int(math.log10(n))+1

To also handle zero and negative numbers

import math
if n > 0:
    digits = int(math.log10(n))+1
elif n == 0:
    digits = 1
else:
    digits = int(math.log10(-n))+2 # +1 if you don't count the '-' 

You'd probably want to put that in a function :)

Here are some benchmarks. The len(str()) is already behind for even quite small numbers

timeit math.log10(2**8)
1000000 loops, best of 3: 746 ns per loop
timeit len(str(2**8))
1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.1 µs per loop

timeit math.log10(2**100)
1000000 loops, best of 3: 775 ns per loop
 timeit len(str(2**100))
100000 loops, best of 3: 3.2 µs per loop

timeit math.log10(2**10000)
1000000 loops, best of 3: 844 ns per loop
timeit len(str(2**10000))
100 loops, best of 3: 10.3 ms per loop

def length(i):
  return len(str(i))

Format in scientific notation and pluck off the exponent:

int("{:.5e}".format(1000000).split("e")[1]) + 1

I don't know about speed, but it's simple.

Please note the number of significant digits after the decimal (the "5" in the ".5e" can be an issue if it rounds up the decimal part of the scientific notation to another digit. I set it arbitrarily large, but could reflect the length of the largest number you know about.

If you have to ask an user to give input and then you have to count how many numbers are there then you can follow this:

count_number = input('Please enter a number\t')

print(len(count_number))

Note: Never take an int as user input.

Python 2.* ints take either 4 or 8 bytes (32 or 64 bits), depending on your Python build. sys.maxint (2**31-1 for 32-bit ints, 2**63-1 for 64-bit ints) will tell you which of the two possibilities obtains.

In Python 3, ints (like longs in Python 2) can take arbitrary sizes up to the amount of available memory; sys.getsizeof gives you a good indication for any given value, although it does also count some fixed overhead:

>>> import sys
>>> sys.getsizeof(0)
12
>>> sys.getsizeof(2**99)
28

If, as other answers suggests, you're thinking about some string representation of the integer value, then just take the len of that representation, be it in base 10 or otherwise!

def count_digit(number):
  if number >= 10:
    count = 2
  else:
    count = 1
  while number//10 > 9:
    count += 1
    number = number//10
  return count