Skip to main content

Converting Between Types



All implicit conversions are allowed, if the destination type can accommodate all possible values of the source type. It’s called widening conversion. Like conversion from integer to double.

If the range or precision of the source type is more than the destination than it’s called narrowing conversion and requires explicit conversion.

System.Convert can be used to covert between the types that implement System.IConvertable interface.

Type.TryParse and type.TryParseExact are new in .NET.

Boxing and Unboxing:
Boxing converts a value type to a reference type and Unboxing converts a reference type to a value type.

Object A;
Int I=0, j=0;
A = (object)I;  //Boxing
j = (int)A;          //Unboxing

How to implement conversion in custom types:
             Override ToString() to provide conversion to string and Parse() to Create object from string.

Implement System.IConvertable interface to provide conversion through System.Convert. Use this technique to provide culture specific conversions.

Implement TypeConvert class to enable design-time conversion for use-in visual studio.

Conversion operator can be also used to convert implicitly or explicitly from one data type to another.

Public static implicit operator <Type A> (<Type B>)
OR
Public static explicit operator <Type A> (<Type B>)

Implementing IConvertible interface:
                                                Add IConvertible to the type definition and visual studio will automatically add 17 different methods including GetTypeCode, ChangeType, and ToType for each base method. Throw exception for those the conversion is invalid. After implementing IConvetible interface you can simply use it like:
            Type A; bool B;
            B = Convert.ToBoolean(A);

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Culture Information and Localization in .NET

Namespace: System.Globalization CultureInfo Class:                 It provides information like the Format of numbers and dates, Culture’s Calendar, Culture’s language and sublanguage (if applicable), Country and region of the culture. The Basic use of CultureInfo class is shown here: • How string Comparisons are performed • How Number Comparison & Formats are performed • Date Comparison and Formats. • How resources are retrieved and used. Cultures are grouped into three categories: Invariant Culture : It’s Culture Insensitive. It can be used to build some trial application. It can be also used to build an application with hard-coded expiry date that ignores cultures. But using it for every comparison will be incorrect and inappropriate. Neutral Culture : English(en), Frensh(fr), and Spanish(sp). A neutral culture is related to language but it’s not related to specific regi...

Concept of App Domain in .Net

Creating Application Domains: Application domain is just like process, provides separate memory space, and isolates from other code. But it’s quite light weight. It also provides the following advantages: 1-       Reliability : If a domain crashes, it can be unloaded. Hence doesn’t affect the other assemblies. 2-       Efficiency : Loading all assemblies in one domain can be cumbersome and can make the process heavy but Appdomains are efficient in this manner. Important properties of AppDomain: ApplicationIdentity , ApplicationTrust , BaseDirectory , CurrentDomain , DomainManager , DomainDirectory , Evidence , FriendlyName , ID , RelativeSearchPath , SetupInformation , ShadowCopyFiles . Important methods of AppDomain: ApplyPolicy , CreateCOMInstanceFrom , CreateDomain , CreateInstance (Assembly). To create an AppDomain: AppDomain adomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain(“D”); To execute an assembly:...

Asynchronous Execution in ASP.NET

Asynchronous Execution: Two ways either implement IHTTPAsyncHandler interface or in ASP.NET 2.0 set <%@ Page Async=”true” %>. The second option implements IHTTPAsyncHandler interface automatically for the page when parsed or compiled. AddOnPreRenderCompleteAsync ( new BeginEventHandler(BeginTask), new EndEventHandler(EndTask)); AddOnPreRenderCompleteAsync() shoud be called in Page_load. The BeginEventHandler and EndEventHandler are delegates defined as follows: IAsyncResult BeginEventHandler( object sender, EventArgs e, AsyncCallback cb, object state) void EndEventHandler( IAsyncResult ar) AsyncProcess starts and completes between PreRender and PreRenderComplete. Other way to perform Async Task is using AsyncPageTask structure. It also allows multiple tasks to execute simultaneously. void Page_Load (object sender, EventArgs e) { PageAsyncTask task = new PageAsyncTask( new BeginEventHandler(BeginTask), new EndEventH...