Generic type conversion FROM string

Question

I have a class that I want to use to store \"properties\" for another class. These properties simply have a name and a value. Ideally, what I would like is to be able to add

Answer 1

Yet another variation. Handles Nullables, as well as situations where the string is null and T is not nullable.

public class TypedProperty<T> : Property where T : IConvertible
{
    public T TypedValue
    {
        get
        {
            if (base.Value == null) return default(T);
            var type = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(typeof(T)) ?? typeof(T);
            return (T)Convert.ChangeType(base.Value, type);
        }
        set { base.Value = value.ToString(); }
    }
}

Answer 2

You can do it in one line as below:

YourClass obj = (YourClass)Convert.ChangeType(YourValue, typeof(YourClass));

Happy coding ;)

Answer 3

public class TypedProperty<T> : Property
{
    public T TypedValue
    {
        get { return (T)(object)base.Value; }
        set { base.Value = value.ToString();}
    }
}

I using converting via an object. It is a little bit simpler.

Answer 4

Check the static Nullable.GetUnderlyingType. - If the underlying type is null, then the template parameter is not Nullable, and we can use that type directly - If the underlying type is not null, then use the underlying type in the conversion.

Seems to work for me:

public object Get( string _toparse, Type _t )
{
    // Test for Nullable<T> and return the base type instead:
    Type undertype = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(_t);
    Type basetype = undertype == null ? _t : undertype;
    return Convert.ChangeType(_toparse, basetype);
}

public T Get<T>(string _key)
{
    return (T)Get(_key, typeof(T));
}

public void test()
{
    int x = Get<int>("14");
    int? nx = Get<Nullable<int>>("14");
}

Answer 5

lubos hasko's method fails for nullables. The method below will work for nullables. I didn't come up with it, though. I found it via Google: http://web.archive.org/web/20101214042641/http://dogaoztuzun.com/post/C-Generic-Type-Conversion.aspx Credit to "Tuna Toksoz"

Usage first:

TConverter.ChangeType<T>(StringValue);  

The class is below.

public static class TConverter
{
    public static T ChangeType<T>(object value)
    {
        return (T)ChangeType(typeof(T), value);
    }

    public static object ChangeType(Type t, object value)
    {
        TypeConverter tc = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(t);
        return tc.ConvertFrom(value);
    }

    public static void RegisterTypeConverter<T, TC>() where TC : TypeConverter
    {

        TypeDescriptor.AddAttributes(typeof(T), new TypeConverterAttribute(typeof(TC)));
    }
}