To convert any type to a String is as simple as implementing the ToString trait for the type. Rather than doing so directly, you should implement the fmt::Display trait which automagically provides ToString and also allows printing the type as discussed in the section on print!.

use std::fmt;

struct Circle {
    radius: i32
}

impl fmt::Display for Circle {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "Circle of radius {}", self.radius)
    }
}

fn main() {
    let circle = Circle { radius: 6 };
    println!("{}", circle.to_string());
}

One of the more common types to convert a string into is a number. The idiomatic approach to this is to use the parse function and provide the type for the function to parse the string value into, this can be done either without type inference or using the 'turbofish' syntax.

This will convert the string into the type specified so long as the FromStr trait is implemented for that type. This is implemented for numerous types within the standard library. To obtain this functionality on a user defined type simply implement the FromStr trait for that type.

fn main() {
    let parsed: i32 = "5".parse().unwrap();
    let turbo_parsed = "10".parse::<i32>().unwrap();

    let sum = parsed + turbo_parsed;
    println!("Sum: {:?}", sum);
}