In Powershell what is the idiomatic way of converting a string to an int?

Question

The only method I have found is a direct cast:

> $numberAsString = "10" > [int]$numberAsString 10 

Is this the standard approach in Powershell? Is it expected that a test will be done before to ensure that the conversion will succeed and if so how?

Answer 1

You can use the -as operator. If casting succeed you get back a number:

$numberAsString -as [int] 

Answer 2

Using .net

[int]$b = $null #used after as refence $b 0 [int32]::TryParse($a , [ref]$b ) # test if is possible to cast and put parsed value in reference variable True $b 10 $b.gettype()  IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType -------- -------- ----                                     -------- True     True     Int32                                    System.ValueType 

note this (powershell coercing feature)

$a = "10" $a + 1 #second value is evaluated as [string] 101   11 + $a # second value is evaluated as [int] 21