Better way to cast object to int

You have several options:

• (int) — Cast operator. Works if the object already is an integer at some level in the inheritance hierarchy or if there is an implicit conversion defined.

• int.Parse()/int.TryParse() — For converting from a string of unknown format.

• int.ParseExact()/int.TryParseExact() — For converting from a string in a specific format

• Convert.ToInt32() — For converting an object of unknown type. It will use an explicit and implicit conversion or IConvertible implementation if any are defined.

• as int? — Note the “?”. The as operator is only for reference types, and so I used “?” to signify a Nullable<int>. The “as” operator works like Convert.To____(), but think TryParse() rather than Parse(): it returns null rather than throwing an exception if the conversion fails.

Of these, I would prefer (int) if the object really is just a boxed integer. Otherwise use Convert.ToInt32() in this case.

Note that this is a very general answer: I want to throw some attention to Darren Clark’s response because I think it does a good job addressing the specifics here, but came in late and wasn’t voted as well yet. He gets my vote for “accepted answer”, anyway, for also recommending (int), for pointing out that if it fails (int)(short) might work instead, and for recommending you check your debugger to find out the actual runtime type.