Recently I was asked how to convert a number to a string. Let’s look at a few ways of approaching this problem.
Most objects in c# have a method called ToString() which displays the string representation of that object. This is because of inheritance, all objects inherit from System.Object which defines ToString().
Int32 is a struct so it inherits from System.ValueType which also inherits from System.Object
so in code
int a = 9;
string b = a.ToString();
Now let’s look at the reverse. However the reverse runs the risk of throwing an error, let’s look at why.
string b = "9";
string c = "a";
string d = "two";
All are valid strings but only one can be converted to a number. Use the TryParse method to convert to a number.
int.TryParse("9", out int e);
TryParse will not throw an exception if the conversion fails, if it succeeds variable e will contain the result. Note an earlier version of c# required you to define the out parameter before using it with TryParse.
int.Parse exists to do the same thing however it will throw exceptions if a conversion is not possible. The same is true if you use Convert.ToInt32(“two”);
Casting
Casting is a way to explicitly telling the compiler that a type is actually another type and you are aware data loss will occur.
double x = 4.5;
int y = (int)x;
However it is not possible to cast a string to a number format as a string can contain any character not just number characters.
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