ConvertSafe

Safe version of System.Convert, also includes Enum and generic type conversion. No exceptions thrown.

Problem

It is always a problem converting incoming parameters, especially in web programming. While reading value from a textbox, or from querystring you can never trust the user. So, to read a parameter you should first check if it can be converted to needed type. Same problem occurs on converting object to generic types.

Solution

ConvertSafe converts the given parameter to needed type without throwing any exceptions, but gives the default value of the type, or optionally second parameter as the default value.

usage

To integer

int i = ConvertSafe.ToInt("123");

To Boolean

bool b = ConvertSafe.ToBoolean("true");

With default value

int i = ConvertSafe.ToInt(myTextBox.Text, -1);

Convert to Enum

string obj = "TEST";
MyEnum e = ConvertSafe.ToGeneric(obj, MyEnum.DEFAULT_VALUE);