Beware of casting an object to a string (e.g. (string)val;) if the underlying value is a numeric type.

7 Comments

• I actually tend to use the 'as' syntax...
  
  so, string s = val as string;
  
  
  
  Then I can do...
  
  if(s != null)
  
  //it's a string;
  
  
  
  Guess either is fine though...
  

• For this example, that doesn't work.
  
  
  
  object val=1;
  
  string s=val as string;
  
  
  
  s is now equal to null. if you want s to be equal to "1", then you need to use the Convert.ToString() method.
  
  
  
  -Mathew Nolton
  
  

• Doh...sorry! Brain shuts down on a Thursday night, of course it doesn't work!
  

• no sweat. i've been there before.
  
  -Mathew
  

• object val=1;
  
  string s=val as string;
  
  
  
  if you are expecting val to hold a string, it might be better that s is null...
  
  
  
  if it could be any type, then it's different
  
  
  
  What about .ToString()
  
  

• 
  
  My preference if for ToString(), it's a little less verbose and is still fairly obvious.
  

• .ToString() works quite well in this particular situation (e.g. val.ToString()). Out of habit I stay away from it due to its proclivaty to return type information. In the end it's a matter of preference.
  
  
  
  -Mathew Nolton