C# string Parsing to variable types

Question

I want to parse a string into a type easily, but I don\'t want to write wrapper code for each type, I just want to be able to do \"1234\".Parse() or the like and have it return

Answer 1

Why can't you use the parsing already available?

int.Parse("1234");
decimal.Parse("1234");
double.Parse("1234");

Or use TryParse if you're not sure it will be able to successfully parse.

Or if you wanted to implement it as an extension method, take a look at this article that will show you how to create a Generic String.Parse method.

Edit: I have no idea how that site went down so quickly after I posted my answer. Here is the class that the article created:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;

public static class Parser {

     public static T Parse(this string value) {
        // Get default value for type so if string
        // is empty then we can return default value.
        T result = default(T);

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) {
          // we are not going to handle exception here
          // if you need SafeParse then you should create
          // another method specially for that.
          TypeConverter tc = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));
          result = (T)tc.ConvertFrom(value);
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Examples:

// regular parsing
int i = "123".Parse(); 
int? inull = "123".Parse(); 
DateTime d = "01/12/2008".Parse(); 
DateTime? dn = "01/12/2008".Parse();

// null values
string sample = null;
int? k = sample.Parse(); // returns null
int l = sample.Parse();   // returns 0
DateTime dd = sample.Parse(); // returns 01/01/0001
DateTime? ddn = sample.Parse(); // returns null