Why in C# Console.ReadLine() stores only string?

Question

Why can't Console.ReadLine() store int/double in C# ? As opposed to "cin >>" in C++, which can store anything depending on the variable.

Answer 1

Different language, different library, different API, different design decisions, etc.

cin.operator>> is passed a reference to be used an out parameter and it's overloaded on this parameter type. Console.ReadLine returns a value and is not overloaded.

You could write your own extension method for Console like, say, GetValue, which is passed an out parameter and is overloaded on as many types as you wish.

Answer 2

The console, natively, is just text input. Console.ReadLine() (and the other methods) don't do the parsing for you, and instead leave it up to you to parse yourself.

This has an advantage, however, in that it makes it easier to handle the error cases cleanly (if you want to read in a double, and the user types "foo", for example).