What's the best way to check if a String represents an integer in Java?

If you are not concerned with potential overflow problems this function will perform about 20-30 times faster than using Integer.parseInt().

public static boolean isInteger(String str) {
    if (str == null) {
        return false;
    }
    int length = str.length();
    if (length == 0) {
        return false;
    }
    int i = 0;
    if (str.charAt(0) == '-') {
        if (length == 1) {
            return false;
        }
        i = 1;
    }
    for (; i < length; i++) {
        char c = str.charAt(i);
        if (c < '0' || c > '9') {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

You have it, but you should only catch NumberFormatException.

Did a quick benchmark. Exceptions aren't actually that expensivve, unless you start popping back multiple methods and the JVM has to do a lot of work to get the execution stack in place. When staying in the same method, they aren't bad performers.

 public void RunTests()
 {
     String str = "1234567890";

     long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByException(str);
     long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByException: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

     startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByRegex(str);
     endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByRegex: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);

     startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
         IsInt_ByJonas(str);
     endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     System.out.print("ByJonas: ");
     System.out.println(endTime - startTime);
 }

 private boolean IsInt_ByException(String str)
 {
     try
     {
         Integer.parseInt(str);
         return true;
     }
     catch(NumberFormatException nfe)
     {
         return false;
     }
 }

 private boolean IsInt_ByRegex(String str)
 {
     return str.matches("^-?\\d+$");
 }

 public boolean IsInt_ByJonas(String str)
 {
     if (str == null) {
             return false;
     }
     int length = str.length();
     if (length == 0) {
             return false;
     }
     int i = 0;
     if (str.charAt(0) == '-') {
             if (length == 1) {
                     return false;
             }
             i = 1;
     }
     for (; i < length; i++) {
             char c = str.charAt(i);
             if (c <= '/' || c >= ':') {
                     return false;
             }
     }
     return true;
 }

Output:

ByException: 31

ByRegex: 453 (note: re-compiling the pattern every time)

ByJonas: 16

I do agree that Jonas K's solution is the most robust too. Looks like he wins :)