How to get a string from a list of numbers?

Question

I have an Erlang list of symbols: [104, 105, 106, 107 ...]. How can I get a string from this list: "hijk..."?

See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7371955/erlang-lists-with-single-numbers-over-8 for the opposite problem :) — legoscia, Apr 24 '12 at 13:06

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '12 at 08:12

5

Strings as a datatype do not exist in Erlang. Stings are simply lists of characters.

[104, 105, 106, 107] and "hijk" are perfectly equivalent.

In fact, if you type the original list in the shell you get back the "string":

1> [104, 105, 106, 107].   
"hijk"

answered Apr 23 '12 at 08:12

Roberto Aloi

If you have at least one non-printable character in the list, the list will be printed as numbers – Isac Apr 23 '12 at 13:47

1 Answers1