You can directly convert to an int using the str::parse::<T>() method, which returns a Result containing the int.
let my_string = "27".to_string(); // `parse()` works with `&str` and `String`!
let my_int = my_string.parse::<i32>().unwrap();
You can either specify the type to parse to with the turbofish operator (::<>) as shown above or via explicit type annotation:
let my_int: i32 = my_string.parse().unwrap();
Since parse() returns a Result, it will either be an Err if the string couldn’t be parsed as the type specified (for example, the string "peter" can’t be parsed as i32), or an Ok with the value in it.