# Simon Willison compares C and Rust SQLite parse_number() extensions

> Original title: parse_number() as a SQLite extension: C vs Rust

- Source: Simon Willison
- Published: 2026-11-08T22:26:00.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/odwjz4wtu6uxeny9s568hbsvq
- Original: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Nov/8/sqlite-parse-number-c-vs-rust/

## Summary

Simon Willison builds four SQLite extensions implementing parse_number() in C and Rust, which strip commas, currency signs and percent signs to produce numbers. The optimized C version was fastest at 16–19 ns per row, about twice as fast as the Rust versions and far faster than SQL replace(). The versions matched across 8 million fuzz checks.