C# - how to determine whether a Type is a number

Question

Is there a way to determine whether or not a given .Net Type is a number? For example: System.UInt32/UInt16/Double are all numbers. I want to avoid a long switc

Answer 1

With C# 7 this method gives to me better performance than switch case on TypeCode and HashSet:

public static bool IsNumeric(this object o) => o is byte || o is sbyte || o is ushort || o is uint || o is ulong || o is short || o is int || o is long || o is float || o is double || o is decimal;

Tests are following:

public static class Extensions
{
    public static HashSet NumericTypes = new HashSet()
    {
        typeof(byte), typeof(sbyte), typeof(ushort), typeof(uint), typeof(ulong), typeof(short), typeof(int), typeof(long), typeof(decimal), typeof(double), typeof(float)
    };

    public static bool IsNumeric1(this object o) => NumericTypes.Contains(o.GetType());

    public static bool IsNumeric2(this object o) => o is byte || o is sbyte || o is ushort || o is uint || o is ulong || o is short || o is int || o is long || o is decimal || o is double || o is float;

    public static bool IsNumeric3(this object o)
    {
        switch (o)
        {
            case Byte b:
            case SByte sb:
            case UInt16 u16:
            case UInt32 u32:
            case UInt64 u64:
            case Int16 i16:
            case Int32 i32:
            case Int64 i64:
            case Decimal m:
            case Double d:
            case Single f:
                return true;
            default:
                return false;
        }
    }

    public static bool IsNumeric4(this object o)
    {
        switch (Type.GetTypeCode(o.GetType()))
        {
            case TypeCode.Byte:
            case TypeCode.SByte:
            case TypeCode.UInt16:
            case TypeCode.UInt32:
            case TypeCode.UInt64:
            case TypeCode.Int16:
            case TypeCode.Int32:
            case TypeCode.Int64:
            case TypeCode.Decimal:
            case TypeCode.Double:
            case TypeCode.Single:
                return true;
            default:
                return false;
        }
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {           
        var count = 100000000;

        //warm up calls
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric1();
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric2();
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric3();
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric4();
        }

        //Tests begin here
        var sw = new Stopwatch();
        sw.Restart();
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric1();
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Debug.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        sw.Restart();
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric2();
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Debug.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        sw.Restart();
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric3();
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Debug.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);

        sw.Restart();
        for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            i.IsNumeric4();
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Debug.WriteLine(sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    }