C# generic string parse to any object

Question

I am storing object values in strings e.g.,

string[] values = new string[] { \"213.4\", \"10\", \"hello\", \"MyValue\"};

is there any way to ge

Answer 1

Here's a simple version:

object ConvertToAny(string input)
{
    int i;
    if (int.TryParse(input, out i))
        return i;
    double d;
    if (double.TryParse(input, out d))
        return d;
    return input;
}

It will recognize ints and doubles, but everything else is returned as a string. The problem with handling enums is that there's no way to know what enum a value belongs to and there's no way to tell whether it should be a string or not. Other problems are that it doesn't handle dates/times or decimals (how would you distinguish them from doubles?), etc.

If you're willing to change your code like this:

PropertyInfo info = typeof(MyObject).GetProperty("SomeProperty"); 
info.SetValue(obj, AwesomeFunction("20.53", info.PropertyType), null); 

Then it becomes substantially easier:

object ConvertToAny(string input, Type target)
{
    // handle common types
    if (target == typeof(int))
        return int.Parse(input);
    if (target == typeof(double))
        return double.Parse(input);
    ...
    // handle enums
    if (target.BaseType == typeof(Enum))
        return Enum.Parse(target, input);
    // handle anything with a static Parse(string) function
    var parse = target.GetMethod("Parse",
                    System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static |
                    System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public,
                    null, new[] { typeof(string) }, null);
    if (parse != null)
        return parse.Invoke(null, new object[] { input });
    // handle types with constructors that take a string
    var constructor = target.GetConstructor(new[] { typeof(string) });
    if (constructor != null)
        return constructor.Invoke(new object[] { input });
}

Edit: Added a missing parenthesis