c# how to implement type converter

Question

I am struggling to implement a simple Type converter in C#. I followed this guide https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ayybcxe5.aspx

Here is my class :

public class TestClass: TypeConverter
{
        public string Property1{ get; set; }
        public int Property2 { get; set; }
        public TestClass(string p1, int p2)
        {
            Property1= p1;
            Property2 = p2;
        }
        public override bool CanConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context,
        Type sourceType)
        {
            if (sourceType == typeof(string)) {
                 return true;
            }
            return base.CanConvertFrom(context, sourceType);
        }
        public override object ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context,
         CultureInfo culture, object value)
        {
              if (value is string) {
                    return new TestClass ("", Int32.Parse(value.ToString()));
              }
              return base.ConvertFrom(context, culture, value);
        }
        public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context,
        CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType)
        {
            if (destinationType == typeof(string)) {
               return "___"
            }
            return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
        }
 }

I do the following TestClass ("", Int32.Parse(value.ToString())); as for now I am only interested in such case as "1231" -> new TestClass("", 1231)

And here goes the code that gives me an exception;

TypeConverter converter=TypeDescriptor.GetConverter( typeof(TestClass));
Object lalala = converter.ConvertFromString("234");

This code throws NotSupportedException but I don't get why

Answer 1

The code provided is a bit mixed up and it's missing some important stuff. Following, an implementation that converts a custom class CrazyClass from and to string.

CrazyClassTypeConverter

public class CrazyClassTypeConverter : TypeConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type sourceType)
    {
        return sourceType == typeof(string) || base.CanConvertFrom(context, sourceType);
    }

    public override object ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value)
    {
        var casted = value as string;
        return casted != null
            ? new CrazyClass(casted.ToCharArray())
            : base.ConvertFrom(context, culture, value);
    }
    public override object ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType)
    {
        var casted = value as CrazyClass;
        return destinationType == typeof (string) && casted != null
            ? String.Join("", casted.Charray)
            : base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
    }
}

CrazyClass

(note that the class is decorated with TypeConverterAttribute)

[TypeConverter(typeof(CrazyClassTypeConverter))]
public class CrazyClass
{
    public char[] Charray { get; }

    public CrazyClass(char[] charray)
    {
        Charray = charray;
    }
}

Usage

var crazyClass = new CrazyClass(new [] {'T', 'e', 's', 't'});
var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(CrazyClass));

//this should provide you the string "Test"        
var crazyClassToString = converter.ConvertToString(crazyClass); 

//provides you an instance of CrazyClass with property Charray set to {'W', 'h', 'a', 't' } 
var stringToCrazyClass = converter.ConvertFrom("What");