System Namespace

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Defines methods that convert the value of the implementing reference or value type to a common language runtime type that has an equivalent value.

The IConvertible type is not CLS-compliant. For more information about CLS compliance, see What is the Common Language Specification.

IConvertible Interface Members

Show Inherited Members

Methods Visibility Name Parameters Return Type public GetTypeCode ( ) TypeCode public ToBoolean ( IFormatProvider provider ) Boolean public ToByte ( IFormatProvider provider ) Byte public ToChar ( IFormatProvider provider ) Char public ToDateTime ( IFormatProvider provider ) DateTime public ToDecimal ( IFormatProvider provider ) Decimal public ToDouble ( IFormatProvider provider ) Double public ToInt16 ( IFormatProvider provider ) Int16 public ToInt32 ( IFormatProvider provider ) Int32 public ToInt64 ( IFormatProvider provider ) Int64 public ToSByte ( IFormatProvider provider ) SByte public ToSingle ( IFormatProvider provider ) Single public ToString ( IFormatProvider provider ) String public ToType ( Type conversionType , IFormatProvider provider ) Object public ToUInt16 ( IFormatProvider provider ) UInt16 public ToUInt32 ( IFormatProvider provider ) UInt32 public ToUInt64 ( IFormatProvider provider ) UInt64

Class	Description
DBNull	Represents a null value.
Enum	Provides the base class for enumerations.
String	Represents an immutable series of characters.

This interface provides methods to convert the value of an instance of an implementing type to a common language runtime type that has an equivalent value. The common language runtime types are Boolean, SByte, Byte, Int16, UInt16, Int32, UInt32, Int64, UInt64, Single, Double, Decimal, DateTime, Char, and String.

If there is no meaningful conversion to a common language runtime type, then a particular interface method implementation throws InvalidCastException. For example, if this interface is implemented on a Boolean type, the implementation of the ToDateTime method throws an exception because there is no meaningful DateTime equivalent to a Boolean type.

The common language runtime typically exposes the IConvertible interface through the Convert class. The common language runtime also uses the IConvertible interface internally, in explicit interface implementations, to simplify the code used to support conversions in the Convert class and basic common language runtime types.

In addition to the IConvertible interface, the .NET Framework provides classes called type converters for converting user-defined data types to other data types. For more information, see the Generalized Type Conversion topic.

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