Convert string to nullable type (int, double, etc…

Question

I am attempting to do some data conversion. Unfortunately, much of the data is in strings, where it should be int's or double, etc...

So what I've got is something like:

double? amount = Convert.ToDouble(strAmount);

The problem with this approach is if strAmount is empty, if it's empty I want it to amount to be null, so when I add it into the database the column will be null. So I ended up writing this:

double? amount = null;
if(strAmount.Trim().Length>0)
{
    amount = Convert.ToDouble(strAmount);
}

Now this works fine, but I now have five lines of code instead of one. This makes things a little more difficult to read, especially when I have a large amount of columns to convert.

I thought I'd use an extension to the string class and generic's to pass in the type, this is because it could be a double, or an int, or a long. So I tried this:

    public static class GenericExtension
    {
        public static Nullable<T> ConvertToNullable<T>(this string s, T type) where T: struct
        {
            if (s.Trim().Length > 0)
            {
                return (Nullable<T>)s;
            }
            return null;
        }
    }

But I get the error: Cannot convert type 'string' to 'T?'

Is there a way around this? I am not very familiar with creating methods using generics.

Answer 1

There is a generic solution (for any type). Usability is good, but implementation should be improved: http://cleansharp.de/wordpress/2011/05/generischer-typeconverter/

This allows you to write very clean code like this:

string value = null;
int? x = value.ConvertOrDefault<int?>();

and also:

object obj = 1;  

string value = null;
int x = 5;
if (value.TryConvert(out x))
    Console.WriteLine("TryConvert example: " + x); 

bool boolean = "false".ConvertOrDefault<bool>();
bool? nullableBoolean = "".ConvertOrDefault<bool?>();
int integer = obj.ConvertOrDefault<int>();
int negativeInteger = "-12123".ConvertOrDefault<int>();
int? nullableInteger = value.ConvertOrDefault<int?>();
MyEnum enumValue = "SecondValue".ConvertOrDefault<MyEnum>();

MyObjectBase myObject = new MyObjectClassA();
MyObjectClassA myObjectClassA = myObject.ConvertOrDefault<MyObjectClassA>();

Answer 2

My example for anonimous types:

private object ConvertNullable(object value, Type nullableType)
{
    Type resultType = typeof(Nullable<>).MakeGenericType(nullableType.GetGenericArguments());
    return Activator.CreateInstance(resultType, Convert.ChangeType(value, nullableType.GetGenericArguments()[0]));
}

...

Type anonimousType = typeof(Nullable<int>);
object nullableInt1 = ConvertNullable("5", anonimousType);
// or evident Type
Nullable<int> nullableInt2 = (Nullable<int>)ConvertNullable("5", typeof(Nullable<int>));

Answer 3

Another thing to keep in mind is that the string itself might be null.

public static Nullable<T> ToNullable<T>(this string s) where T: struct
{
    Nullable<T> result = new Nullable<T>();
    try
    {
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(s) && s.Trim().Length > 0)
        {
            TypeConverter conv = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));
            result = (T)conv.ConvertFrom(s);
        }
    }
    catch { } 
    return result;
}

Answer 4

You could try using the below extension method:

public static T? GetValueOrNull<T>(this string valueAsString)
    where T : struct 
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(valueAsString))
        return null;
    return (T) Convert.ChangeType(valueAsString, typeof(T));
}

This way you can do this:

double? amount = strAmount.GetValueOrNull<double>();
int? amount = strAmount.GetValueOrNull<int>();
decimal? amount = strAmount.GetValueOrNull<decimal>();

Answer 5

Give this a shot...

public delegate bool TryParseDelegate<T>(string data, out T output);

public static T? ToNullablePrimitive<T>(this string data, 
    TryParseDelegate<T> func) where T:struct
{
    string.IsNullOrEmpty(data) return null;

    T output;

    if (func(data, out output))
    {
        return (T?)output;
    }

    return null;
}

Then call it like this...

void doStuff()
{
    string foo = "1.0";

    double? myDouble = foo.ToNullablePrimitive<double>(double.TryParse);

    foo = "1";

    int? myInt = foo.ToNullablePrimitive<int>(int.TryParse);

    foo = "haha";

    int? myInt2 = foo.ToNullablePrimitive<int>(int.TryParse);
}

Answer 6

Another variation. This one

• Does not swallow exceptions
• Throws a NotSupportedException if the type can not be converted from string. For instance, a custom struct without a type converter.
• Otherwise returns a (T?)null if the string fails to parse. No need to check for null or whitespace.

using System.ComponentModel;

public static Nullable<T> ToNullable<T>(this string s) where T : struct
{
    var ret = new Nullable<T>();
    var conv = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));

    if (!conv.CanConvertFrom(typeof(string)))
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    if (conv.IsValid(s))
    {
        ret = (T)conv.ConvertFrom(s);
    }

    return ret;
}