I have a library which allows you to do all kind of conversions like to_string<string>(1234); to_string<wstring>(1234, &hex); to_string<fixed_string<10> >(10.25, make_tuple(&fixed, setprecision(1), setw (10))); to_string<string>(1234, locale::classic()); to_string_classic<wstring>(1234); // same as above but with non-stream specializations for int (planning to add double) from_string<int>(str); from_string<double>(str, -5); // return -5 on error from_string<double>(str, &hex); from_string<int>(str, &noskipws, std::locale("German"), 0); from_string_classic<int>(str); If you have many conversions you can increase preformance by reusing the stream. basic_tofrom_string<string> conv(make_tuple(setprecision(2), &fixed), locale::classic()); conv.to_string(1234, &hex); conv.to_char(1.234, setw(10)); // avoid copying result to std::string conv.from_string<double>(str, 0.0); All conversion routines uses a home-made streambuffer with optimizations to avoid copying and memory allocations (e.g. small string optimization & buffer reuse). Main benefit over lexical_cast is that you can control formatting & locale but performance is also much better due to less memory alllocations.