Single.Parse Method (String, NumberStyles)

The style parameter defines the style elements (such as white space, thousands separators, and currency symbols) that are allowed in the s parameter for the parse operation to succeed. It must be a combination of bit flags from the NumberStyles enumeration. The following NumberStyles members are not supported:

• AllowHexSpecifier

• HexNumber

The s parameter can contain the current culture's PositiveInfinitySymbol, NegativeInfinitySymbol, NaNSymbol. Depending on the value of style, it can also take the form:

[ws][$][sign][integral-digits[,]]integral-digits[.[fractional-digits]][E[sign]exponential-digits][ws]

Elements in square brackets ([ and ]) are optional. The following table describes each element.

ws

A series of white-space characters. White space can appear at the beginning of s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowLeadingWhite flag, and it can appear at the end of s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowTrailingWhite flag.

$

A culture-specific currency symbol. Its position in the string is defined by the NumberFormatInfo.CurrencyNegativePattern and NumberFormatInfo.CurrencyPositivePattern properties of the current culture. The current culture's currency symbol can appear in s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowCurrencySymbol flag.

sign

A negative sign symbol (-) or a positive sign symbol (+). The sign can appear at the beginning of s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowLeadingSign flag, and it can appear at the end of s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowTrailingSign flag. Parentheses can be used in s to indicate a negative value if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowParentheses flag.

integral-digits

A series of digits ranging from 0 to 9 that specify the integral part of the number. The integral-digits element can be absent if the string contains the fractional-digits element.

,

A culture-specific group separator. The current culture's group separator symbol can appear in s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowThousands flag

.

A culture-specific decimal point symbol. The current culture's decimal point symbol can appear in s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint flag.

fractional-digits

A series of digits ranging from 0 to 9 that specify the fractional part of the number. Fractional digits can appear in s if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint flag.

E

The "e" or "E" character, which indicates that the value is represented in exponential (scientific) notation. The value parameter can represent a number in exponential notation if style includes the NumberStyles.AllowExponent flag.

exponential-digits

A series of digits ranging from 0 to 9 that specify an exponent.

A string with digits only (which corresponds to the NumberStyles.None style) always parses successfully. The remaining System.Globalization.NumberStyles members control elements that may be present, but are not required to be present, in the input string. The following table indicates how individual NumberStyles flags affect the elements that may be present in s.

Some examples of s are "100", "-123,456,789", "123.45e+6", "+500", "5e2", "3.1416", "600.", "-.123", and "-Infinity".

The s parameter is parsed using the formatting information in a NumberFormatInfo object that is initialized for the current system culture. To specify the culture whose formatting information is used for the parse operation, call the Parse(String, NumberStyles, IFormatProvider) overload.

Ordinarily, if you pass the Parse method a string that is created by calling the ToString method, the original Single value is returned. However, because of a loss of precision, the values may not be equal.

If a separator is encountered in the s parameter during a parse operation, and the applicable currency or number decimal and group separators are the same, the parse operation assumes that the separator is a decimal separator rather than a group separator. For more information about separators, see CurrencyDecimalSeparator, NumberDecimalSeparator, CurrencyGroupSeparator, and NumberGroupSeparator.

The following example uses the Parse(String, NumberStyles) method to parse the string representations of Single values. The example uses formatting information for the en-US culture.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class ParseString
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      // Set current thread culture to en-US.
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");

      string value;
      NumberStyles styles;

      // Parse a string in exponential notation with only the AllowExponent flag. 
      value = "-1.063E-02";
      styles = NumberStyles.AllowExponent;
      ShowNumericValue(value, styles);

      // Parse a string in exponential notation
      // with the AllowExponent and Number flags.
      styles = NumberStyles.AllowExponent | NumberStyles.Number;
      ShowNumericValue(value, styles);

      // Parse a currency value with leading and trailing white space, and
      // white space after the U.S. currency symbol.
      value = " $ 6,164.3299  ";
      styles = NumberStyles.Number | NumberStyles.AllowCurrencySymbol;
      ShowNumericValue(value, styles);

      // Parse negative value with thousands separator and decimal.
      value = "(4,320.64)";
      styles = NumberStyles.AllowParentheses | NumberStyles.AllowTrailingSign |
               NumberStyles.Float; 
      ShowNumericValue(value, styles);

      styles = NumberStyles.AllowParentheses | NumberStyles.AllowTrailingSign |
               NumberStyles.Float | NumberStyles.AllowThousands;
      ShowNumericValue(value, styles);
   }

   private static void ShowNumericValue(string value, NumberStyles styles)
   {
      Single number;
      try
      {
         number = Single.Parse(value, styles);
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' using {1} to {2}.", 
                           value, styles.ToString(), number);
      }
      catch (FormatException)
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to parse '{0}' with styles {1}.", 
                           value, styles.ToString());
      }
      Console.WriteLine();                           
   }   
}
// The example displays the following output to the console:
//    Unable to parse '-1.063E-02' with styles AllowExponent.
//    
//    Converted '-1.063E-02' using AllowTrailingSign, AllowThousands, Float to -0.01063.
//    
//    Converted ' $ 6,164.3299  ' using Number, AllowCurrencySymbol to 6164.3299.
//    
//    Unable to parse '(4,320.64)' with styles AllowTrailingSign, AllowParentheses, Float.
//    
//    Converted '(4,320.64)' using AllowTrailingSign, AllowParentheses, AllowThousands, Float to -4320.64.   

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

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