Generic TryParse

Question

You should use the TypeDescriptor class:

public static T Convert<T>(this string input)
{
    try
    {
        var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));
        if(converter != null)
        {
            // Cast ConvertFromString(string text) : object to (T)
            return (T)converter.ConvertFromString(input);
        }
        return default(T);
    }
    catch (NotSupportedException)
    {
        return default(T);
    }
}

I also required a generic TryParse recently. Here's what I came up with;

public static T? TryParse<T>(string value, TryParseHandler<T> handler) where T : struct
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        return null;
    T result;
    if (handler(value, out result))
        return result;
    Trace.TraceWarning("Invalid value '{0}'", value);
    return null;
}

public delegate bool TryParseHandler<T>(string value, out T result);

Then it's simply a matter of calling thusly:

var value = TryParse<int>("123", int.TryParse);
var value2 = TryParse<decimal>("123.123", decimal.TryParse);

Using try/catches for flow control is a terrible policy. Throw an exception causes performance lags while the runtime works around the exception. Instead validate the data before converting.

var attemptedValue = "asdfasdsd";
var type = typeof(int);
var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(type);
if (converter != null &&  converter.IsValid(attemptedValue))
    return converter.ConvertFromString(attemptedValue);
else
    return Activator.CreateInstance(type);

If you are set on using TryParse, you can use reflection and do it like this:

public static bool Is<T>(this string input)
{
    var type = typeof (T);
    var temp = default(T);
    var method = type.GetMethod(
        "TryParse",
        new[]
            {
                typeof (string),
                Type.GetType(string.Format("{0}&", type.FullName))
            });
    return (bool) method.Invoke(null, new object[] {input, temp});
}