How to make a Generic Type Cast function

Question

Possible Duplicate    is there a generic Parse   function that will convert a string to any type using parse        I want to make a generic function for doing some operations  like   ConvertValue lt T gt  string value    If T is int then the function will convert the value to int and return the result   Similarly  if T is boolean  the function will convert the value to boolean and return it   How to write this

User · Accepted Answer

Something like this   public static T ConvertValue lt T gt  string value        return  T Convert ChangeType value  typeof T        You can then use it like this   int val   ConvertValue lt int gt   42      Edit   You can even do this more generic and not rely on a string parameter provided the type U implements IConvertible - this means you have to specify two type parameters though   public static T ConvertValue lt T U gt  U value  where U   IConvertible       return  T Convert ChangeType value  typeof T        I considered catching the InvalidCastException exception that might be raised by Convert ChangeType   - but what would you return in this case  default T    It seems more appropriate having the caller deal with the exception

User · Answer

While probably not as clean looking as the IConvertible approach  you could always use the straightforward checking typeof T  to return a T   public static T ReturnType lt T gt  string stringValue        if  typeof T     typeof int           return  T  object 1      else if  typeof T     typeof FooBar           return  T  object new FooBar stringValue       else         return default T      public class FooBar       public FooBar string something

User · Answer

ConvertValue  System Object o    then you can branch out by o GetType   result and up-cast o to the types to work with the value

[c#] How to make a Generic Type Cast function

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