Parsing Numeric Strings

All numeric types have two static parsing methods, Parse and TryParse, that you can use to convert the string representation of a number into a numeric type. These methods enable you to parse strings that were produced by using the format strings documented in Standard Numeric Format Strings and Custom Numeric Format Strings. By default, the Parse and TryParse methods can successfully convert strings that contain integral decimal digits only to integer values. They can successfully convert strings that contain integral and fractional decimal digits, group separators, and a decimal separator to floating-point values. The Parse method throws an exception if the operation fails, whereas the TryParse method returns false.

Parsing and Format Providers

Typically, the string representations of numeric values differ by culture. Elements of numeric strings such as currency symbols, group (or thousands) separators, and decimal separators all vary by culture. Parsing methods either implicitly or explicitly use a format provider that recognizes these culture-specific variations. If no format provider is specified in a call to the Parse or TryParse method, the format provider associated with the current thread culture (the NumberFormatInfo object returned by the NumberFormatInfo.CurrentInfo property) is used.

A format provider is represented by an IFormatProvider implementation. This interface has a single member, the GetFormat method, whose single parameter is a Type object that represents the type to be formatted. This method returns the object that provides formatting information. The .NET Framework supports the following two IFormatProvider implementations for parsing numeric strings:

• A CultureInfo object whose CultureInfo.GetFormat method returns a NumberFormatInfo object that provides culture-specific formatting information.

• A NumberFormatInfo object whose NumberFormatInfo.GetFormat method returns itself.

The following example tries to convert each string in an array to a Double value. It first tries to parse the string by using a format provider that reflects the conventions of the English (United States) culture. If this operation throws a FormatException, it tries to parse the string by using a format provider that reflects the conventions of the French (France) culture.

Imports System.Globalization

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim values() As String = { "1,304.16", "$1,456.78", "1,094", "152", 
                                 "123,45 €", "1 304,16", "Ae9f" }
      Dim number As Double
      Dim culture As CultureInfo = Nothing

      For Each value As String In values
         Try
            culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US")
            number = Double.Parse(value, culture)
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} --> {2}", culture.Name, value, number)
         Catch e As FormatException
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: Unable to parse '{1}'.", 
                              culture.Name, value)
            culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR")
            Try
               number = Double.Parse(value, culture)
               Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} --> {2}", culture.Name, value, number)
            Catch ex As FormatException
               Console.WriteLine("{0}: Unable to parse '{1}'.", 
                                 culture.Name, value)
            End Try
         End Try
         Console.WriteLine()
      Next
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'    en-US: 1,304.16 --> 1304.16
'    
'    en-US: Unable to parse '$1,456.78'.
'    fr-FR: Unable to parse '$1,456.78'.
'    
'    en-US: 1,094 --> 1094
'    
'    en-US: 152 --> 152
'    
'    en-US: Unable to parse '123,45 €'.
'    fr-FR: Unable to parse '123,45 €'.
'    
'    en-US: Unable to parse '1 304,16'.
'    fr-FR: 1 304,16 --> 1304.16
'    
'    en-US: Unable to parse 'Ae9f'.
'    fr-FR: Unable to parse 'Ae9f'.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string[] values = { "1,304.16", "$1,456.78", "1,094", "152", 
                          "123,45 €", "1 304,16", "Ae9f" };
      double number;
      CultureInfo culture = null;

      foreach (string value in values) {
         try {
            culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
            number = Double.Parse(value, culture);
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} --> {2}", culture.Name, value, number);
         }   
         catch (FormatException) {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: Unable to parse '{1}'.", 
                              culture.Name, value);
            culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR");
            try {
               number = Double.Parse(value, culture);
               Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} --> {2}", culture.Name, value, number);
            }
            catch (FormatException) {
               Console.WriteLine("{0}: Unable to parse '{1}'.", 
                                 culture.Name, value);
            }
         }
         Console.WriteLine();
      }   
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    en-US: 1,304.16 --> 1304.16
//    
//    en-US: Unable to parse '$1,456.78'.
//    fr-FR: Unable to parse '$1,456.78'.
//    
//    en-US: 1,094 --> 1094
//    
//    en-US: 152 --> 152
//    
//    en-US: Unable to parse '123,45 €'.
//    fr-FR: Unable to parse '123,45 €'.
//    
//    en-US: Unable to parse '1 304,16'.
//    fr-FR: 1 304,16 --> 1304.16
//    
//    en-US: Unable to parse 'Ae9f'.
//    fr-FR: Unable to parse 'Ae9f'.

Parsing and NumberStyles Values

The style elements (such as white space, group separators, and decimal separator) that the parse operation can handle are defined by a NumberStyles enumeration value. By default, strings that represent integer values are parsed by using the NumberStyles.Integer value, which permits only numeric digits, leading and trailing white space, and a leading sign. Strings that represent floating-point values are parsed using a combination of the NumberStyles.Float and NumberStyles.AllowThousands values; this composite style permits decimal digits along with leading and trailing white space, a leading sign, a decimal separator, a group separator, and an exponent. By calling an overload of the Parse or TryParse method that includes a parameter of type NumberStyles and setting one or more NumberStyles flags, you can control the style elements that can be present in the string for the parse operation to succeed.

For example, a string that contains a group separator cannot be converted to an Int32 value by using the Int32.Parse(String) method. However, the conversion succeeds if you use the NumberStyles.AllowThousands flag, as the following example illustrates.

Imports System.Globalization

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim value As String = "1,304"
      Dim number As Integer
      Dim provider As IFormatProvider = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US")
      If Int32.TryParse(value, number) Then
         Console.WriteLine("{0} --> {1}", value, number)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'", value)
      End If

      If Int32.TryParse(value, NumberStyles.Integer Or NumberStyles.AllowThousands, 
                        provider, number) Then
         Console.WriteLine("{0} --> {1}", value, number)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'", value)
      End If
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       Unable to convert '1,304'
'       1,304 --> 1304

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string value = "1,304";
      int number;
      IFormatProvider provider = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
      if (Int32.TryParse(value, out number))
         Console.WriteLine("{0} --> {1}", value, number);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'", value);

      if (Int32.TryParse(value, NumberStyles.Integer | NumberStyles.AllowThousands, 
                        provider, out number))
         Console.WriteLine("{0} --> {1}", value, number);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'", value);
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Unable to convert '1,304'
//       1,304 --> 1304

Caution
The parse operation always uses the formatting conventions of a particular culture. If you do not specify a culture by passing a CultureInfo or NumberFormatInfo object, the culture associated with the current thread is used.

The following table lists the members of the NumberStyles enumeration and describes the effect that they have on the parsing operation.

In addition, the NumberStyles enumeration provides the following composite styles, which include multiple NumberStyles flags.

Parsing and Unicode Digits

The Unicode standard defines code points for digits in various writing systems. For example, code points from U+0030 to U+0039 represent the basic Latin digits 0 through 9, code points from U+09E6 to U+09EF represent the Bangla digits 0 through 9, and code points from U+FF10 to U+FF19 represent the Fullwidth digits 0 through 9. However, the only numeric digits recognized by parsing methods are the basic Latin digits 0-9 with code points from U+0030 to U+0039. If a numeric parsing method is passed a string that contains any other digits, the method throws a FormatException.

The following example uses the Int32.Parse method to parse strings that consist of digits in different writing systems. As the output from the example shows, the attempt to parse the basic Latin digits succeeds, but the attempt to parse the Fullwidth, Arabic-Indic, and Bangla digits fails.

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim value As String
      ' Define a string of basic Latin digits 1-5.
      value = ChrW(&h31) + ChrW(&h32) + ChrW(&h33) + ChrW(&h34) + ChrW(&h35)
      ParseDigits(value)

      ' Define a string of Fullwidth digits 1-5.
      value = ChrW(&hff11) + ChrW(&hff12) + ChrW(&hff13) + ChrW(&hff14) + ChrW(&hff15)
      ParseDigits(value)

      ' Define a string of Arabic-Indic digits 1-5.
      value = ChrW(&h661) + ChrW(&h662) + ChrW(&h663) + ChrW(&h664) + ChrW(&h665)
      ParseDigits(value)

      ' Define a string of Bangla digits 1-5.
      value = ChrW(&h09e7) + ChrW(&h09e8) + ChrW(&h09e9) + ChrW(&h09ea) + ChrW(&h09eb)
      ParseDigits(value)
   End Sub

   Sub ParseDigits(value As String)
      Try
         Dim number As Integer = Int32.Parse(value)
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' --> {1}", value, number)
      Catch e As FormatException
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to parse '{0}'.", value)      
      End Try     
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       '12345' --> 12345
'       Unable to parse '１２３４５'.
'       Unable to parse '١٢٣٤٥'.
'       Unable to parse '১২৩৪৫'.

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string value;
      // Define a string of basic Latin digits 1-5.
      value = "\u0031\u0032\u0033\u0034\u0035";
      ParseDigits(value);

      // Define a string of Fullwidth digits 1-5.
      value = "\uFF11\uFF12\uFF13\uFF14\uFF15";
      ParseDigits(value);

      // Define a string of Arabic-Indic digits 1-5.
      value = "\u0661\u0662\u0663\u0664\u0665";
      ParseDigits(value);

      // Define a string of Bangla digits 1-5.
      value = "\u09e7\u09e8\u09e9\u09ea\u09eb";
      ParseDigits(value);
   }

   static void ParseDigits(string value)
   {
      try {
         int number = Int32.Parse(value);
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' --> {1}", value, number);
      }   
      catch (FormatException) {
         Console.WriteLine("Unable to parse '{0}'.", value);      
      }     
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       '12345' --> 12345
//       Unable to parse '１２３４５'.
//       Unable to parse '١٢٣٤٥'.
//       Unable to parse '১২৩৪৫'.

See Also

Reference

NumberStyles

Other Resources

Parsing Strings

Formatting Types