Convert char to int in C#

Question

I have a char in c#:

char foo = '2';

Now I want to get the 2 into an int. I find that Convert.ToInt32 returns the actual decimal value of the char and not the number 2. The following will work:

int bar = Convert.ToInt32(new string(foo, 1));

int.parse only works on strings as well.

Is there no native function in C# to go from a char to int without making it a string? I know this is trivial but it just seems odd that there's nothing native to directly make the conversion.

Answer 1

Has anyone considered using int.Parse() and int.TryParse() like this

int bar = int.Parse(foo.ToString());

Even better like this

int bar;
if (!int.TryParse(foo.ToString(), out bar))
{
    //Do something to correct the problem
}

It's a lot safer and less error prone