Parsing Strings

A parsing operation converts a string that represents a .NET Framework base type into that base type. For example, a parsing operation is used to convert a string to a floating-point number or to a date and time value. The method most commonly used to perform a parsing operation is the Parse method. Because parsing is the reverse operation of formatting (which involves converting a base type into its string representation), many of the same rules and conventions apply. Just as formatting uses an object that implements the IFormatProvider interface to provide culture-sensitive formatting information, parsing also uses an object that implements the IFormatProvider interface to determine how to interpret a string representation. For more information, see Formatting Types.

In This Section

• Parsing Numeric Strings
  Describes how to convert strings into .NET Framework numeric types.

• Parsing Date and Time Strings
  Describes how to convert strings into .NET Framework DateTime types.

• Parsing Other Strings
  Describes how to convert strings into Char, Boolean, and Enum types.

Related Sections

• Formatting Types
  Describes basic formatting concepts like format specifiers and format providers.

• Type Conversion in the .NET Framework
  Describes how to convert types.

• Working with Base Types
  Describes common operations that you can perform on .NET Framework base types.