`tryparse` for `Char` types

[alecloudenback]

julia> Base.tryparse(Int,'1')
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching tryparse(::Type{Int64}, ::Char)
Closest candidates are:
  tryparse(::Type{T}, ::AbstractString; base) where T<:Integer at /Applications/Julia-1.7.app/Contents/Resources/julia/share/julia/base/parse.jl:235

Is there a reason not to define such a method? Base.parse works:

julia> Base.parse(Int,'1')
1

[Seelengrab]

tryparse has no methods for parsing anything from a Char, only String and AbstractString - this would be a first of its kind. I'm aware it's not a strong point, but this interface is usually used either with strings or substrings directly.

[Moelf]

I think it would be weird if tryparse(T, blah) returns different thing from convert(T, blah).

Conceptually only one of them should ever work: blah either can be converted to type T losslessly, or not (thus needing parse).

Currently we already have:

julia> Int('1')
49

julia> convert(Int, '1')
49

[JeffBezanson]

I think it would be weird if tryparse(T, blah) returns different thing from convert(T, blah).

This difference is the reason parse exists; it's not really a conversion but an implementation of a specific syntax for numbers. Admittedly Chars are very weird in this regard since they're both text and integer-like. As for the OP, I don't see a good reason parse should work with Chars but not tryparse.