[c#] "Input string was not in a correct format."

I am working on a project in which I have a form through which I can edit a question available in a list view. Whenever I select a row from the list view and click on the 'modify' button, the text boxes above the list view load the question and its options. This means that when I select a row in the list view and click on the 'modify' button, the question loads itself into the text boxes. I edit the question there and click on 'save' to save changes, but I am not able to access the data in the text boxes. It says {"Input string was not in a correct format."}.

My code of the form frmFormWizard's 'edit' button is given below:

frmFormWizard.cs Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data.Sql;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace SurveyBuilder
{
    public partial class frmFormWizard : Form
    {
        int intPanelNumber = 1;
        Boolean blnCancel = false;
        //int intFlag = 1;

        public frmFormWizard()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        ...

        private void btnEditTwoOrMoreOptions_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            int QuestionID;           
            string sql;

            QuestionID = Convert.ToInt32(lvTwoOrMoreOptions.SelectedItems[0].Text.ToString());
            {
                SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection();
                SqlCommand rs = new SqlCommand();
                SqlDataReader sdr = null;
                clsConnection clsCon = new clsConnection();

                clsCon.fnc_ConnectToDB(ref cn);

                sql = "";
                sql += "SELECT * FROM SurveyQuestionLog WHERE SurveyQuestionLog.QuestionLogID = "+ QuestionID +"";
                //sql += "SELECT * FROM SurveyQuestionLog";

                rs.Connection = cn;
                rs.CommandText = sql;
                sdr = rs.ExecuteReader();

                while (sdr.Read())
                {
                    txtTwoOrMoreQuestions.Text = (string)sdr["Question"];
                    txtOption1.Text = (string)sdr["Choice1"];
                    ...
                }

                sdr.Close();
                rs = null;
                cn.Close();
            }
        }

Whenever I try to compile the code it says "{"Input string was not in a correct format."}" and this error is shown on the following line:

 QuestionID = Convert.ToInt32(lvTwoOrMoreOptions.SelectedItems[0].Text.ToString());

Please let me know what I am doing wrong.

If you are not validating explicitly for numbers in the text field, in any case its better to use

int result=0;
if(int.TryParse(textBox1.Text,out result))

Now if the result is success then you can proceed with your calculations.

You might be trying to access a control inside a control, maybe a GridView or DetailsView.

Try using something like this:

empsalary = Convert.ToInt32(((TextBox)DetailsView1.Rows[1].Cells[1].Controls[0]).Text);

Please change your code like below.

  int QuestionID;

  bool IsIntValue = Int32.TryParse("YOUR-VARIABLE", out QuestionID);

  if (IsIntValue)
  {
      // YOUR CODE HERE  
  }

Hope i will be help.

In my case I forgot to put double curly brace to escape. {{myobject}}

You have not mentioned if your textbox have values in design time or now. When form initializes text box may not hae value if you have not put it in textbox when during form design. you can put int value in form design by setting text property in desgin and this should work.

it was my problem too .. in my case i changed the PERSIAN number to LATIN number and it worked. AND also trime your string before converting.

PersianCalendar pc = new PersianCalendar();
char[] seperator ={'/'};
string[] date = txtSaleDate.Text.Split(seperator);
int a = Convert.ToInt32(Persia.Number.ConvertToLatin(date[0]).Trim());

whenever i try to compile the code it says "{"Input string was not in a correct format."}"

This error won't come on compiling.

Now the error comese because you are trying to parse an invalid string to integer. To do it in a safe manner, you should do it like this

int questionID;
if(int.TryParse(vTwoOrMoreOptions.SelectedItems[0].Text.ToString(),out questionID))
{
//success code
}
else
{
 //failure code
}

Problems

There are some possible cases why the error occurs:

1. Because textBox1.Text contains only number, but the number is too big/too small

2. Because textBox1.Text contains:

   • a) non-number (except space in the beginning/end, - in the beginning) and/or
   • b) thousand separators in the applied culture for your code without specifying NumberStyles.AllowThousands or you specify NumberStyles.AllowThousands but put wrong thousand separator in the culture and/or
   • c) decimal separator (which should not exist in int parsing)

NOT OK Examples:

Case 1

a = Int32.Parse("5000000000"); //5 billions, too large
b = Int32.Parse("-5000000000"); //-5 billions, too small
//The limit for int (32-bit integer) is only from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

Case 2 a)

a = Int32.Parse("a189"); //having a 
a = Int32.Parse("1-89"); //having - but not in the beginning
a = Int32.Parse("18 9"); //having space, but not in the beginning or end

Case 2 b)

NumberStyles styles = NumberStyles.AllowThousands;
a = Int32.Parse("1,189"); //not OK, no NumberStyles.AllowThousands
b = Int32.Parse("1,189", styles, new CultureInfo("fr-FR")); //not OK, having NumberStyles.AllowThousands but the culture specified use different thousand separator

Case 2 c)

NumberStyles styles = NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint;
a = Int32.Parse("1.189", styles); //wrong, int parse cannot parse decimal point at all!

Seemingly NOT OK, but actually OK Examples:

Case 2 a) OK

a = Int32.Parse("-189"); //having - but in the beginning
b = Int32.Parse(" 189 "); //having space, but in the beginning or end

Case 2 b) OK

NumberStyles styles = NumberStyles.AllowThousands;
a = Int32.Parse("1,189", styles); //ok, having NumberStyles.AllowThousands in the correct culture
b = Int32.Parse("1 189", styles, new CultureInfo("fr-FR")); //ok, having NumberStyles.AllowThousands and correct thousand separator is used for "fr-FR" culture

Solutions

In all cases, please check the value of textBox1.Text with your Visual Studio debugger and make sure that it has purely-acceptable numerical format for int range. Something like this:

1234

Also, you may consider of

1. using TryParse instead of Parse to ensure that the non-parsed number does not cause you exception problem.

2. check the result of TryParse and handle it if not true

   int val;
   bool result = int.TryParse(textbox1.Text, out val);
   if (!result)
       return; //something has gone wrong
   //OK, continue using val
   

I ran into this exact exception, except it had nothing to do with parsing numerical inputs. So this isn't an answer to the OP's question, but I think it's acceptable to share the knowledge.

I'd declared a string and was formatting it for use with JQTree which requires curly braces ({}). You have to use doubled curly braces for it to be accepted as a properly formatted string:

string measurements = string.empty;
measurements += string.Format(@"
    {{label: 'Measurement Name: {0}',
        children: [
            {{label: 'Measured Value: {1}'}},
            {{label: 'Min: {2}'}},
            {{label: 'Max: {3}'}},
            {{label: 'Measured String: {4}'}},
            {{label: 'Expected String: {5}'}},
        ]
    }},",
    drv["MeasurementName"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["MeasurementName"],
    drv["MeasuredValue"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["MeasuredValue"],
    drv["Min"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["Min"],
    drv["Max"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["Max"],
    drv["MeasuredString"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["MeasuredString"],
    drv["ExpectedString"] == null ? "NULL" : drv["ExpectedString"]);

Hopefully this will help other folks who find this question but aren't parsing numerical data.

The error means that the string you're trying to parse an integer from doesn't actually contain a valid integer.

It's extremely unlikely that the text boxes will contain a valid integer immediately when the form is created - which is where you're getting the integer values. It would make much more sense to update a and b in the button click events (in the same way that you are in the constructor). Also, check out the Int.TryParse method - it's much easier to use if the string might not actually contain an integer - it doesn't throw an exception so it's easier to recover from.

It looks that whatever that text is containing some characters which cannot be converted to integer like space, letters, special characters etc. Check what is coming through dropdown as below

lvTwoOrMoreOptions.SelectedItems[0].Text.ToString();

and see if that is the case.

I had a similar problem that I solved with the following technique:

The exception was thrown at the following line of code (see the text decorated with ** below):

static void Main(string[] args)
    {

        double number = 0;
        string numberStr = string.Format("{0:C2}", 100);

        **number = Double.Parse(numberStr);**

        Console.WriteLine("The number is {0}", number);
    }

After a bit of investigating, I realized that the problem was that the formatted string included a dollar sign ($) that the Parse/TryParse methods cannot resolve (i.e. - strip off). So using the Remove(...) method of the string object I changed the line to:

number = Double.Parse(numberStr.Remove(0, 1)); // Remove the "$" from the number

At that point the Parse(...) method worked as expected.