Parsing Other Strings
In addition to numeric and DateTime strings, you can also parse strings that represent the types Char, Boolean, and Enum into data types.
Char
The static parse method associated with the Char data type is useful for converting a string that contains a single character into its Unicode value. The following code example parses a string into a Unicode character.
Dim MyString As String = "A"
Dim MyChar As Char = Char.Parse(MyString)
' MyChar now contains a Unicode "A" character.
string MyString = "A";
char MyChar = Char.Parse(MyString);
// MyChar now contains a Unicode "A" character.
Boolean
The Boolean data type contains a Parse method that you can use to convert a string that represents a Boolean value into an actual Boolean type. This method is not case-sensitive and can successfully parse a string containing "True" or "False." The Parse method associated with the Boolean type can also parse strings that are surrounded by white spaces. If any other string is passed, a FormatException is thrown.
The following code example uses the Parse method to convert a string into a Boolean value.
Dim MyString As String = "True"
Dim MyBool As Boolean = Boolean.Parse(MyString)
' MyBool now contains a True Boolean value.
string MyString = "True";
bool MyBool = bool.Parse(MyString);
// MyBool now contains a True Boolean value.
Enumeration
You can use the static Parse method to initialize an enumeration type to the value of a string. This method accepts the enumeration type you are parsing, the string to parse, and an optional Boolean flag indicating whether or not the parse is case-sensitive. The string you are parsing can contain several values separated by commas, which can be preceded or followed by one or more empty spaces (also called white spaces). When the string contains multiple values, the value of the returned object is the value of all specified values combined with a bitwise OR operation.
The following example uses the Parse method to convert a string representation into an enumeration value. The DayOfWeek enumeration is initialized to Thursday from a string.
Dim MyString As String = "Thursday"
Dim MyDays as DayOfWeek = _
CType([Enum].Parse(GetType(DayOfWeek), MyString), DayOfWeek)
Console.WriteLine(MyDays.ToString())
' The result is Thursday.
string MyString = "Thursday";
DayOfWeek MyDays = (DayOfWeek)Enum.Parse(typeof(DayOfWeek), MyString);
Console.WriteLine(MyDays);
// The result is Thursday.