How do I parse a string with a decimal point to a double?

Question

I want to parse a string like \"3.5\" to a double. However,

double.Parse(\"3.5\") 

yields 35 and

double.Pars         


        

Answer 1

It's difficult without specifying what decimal separator to look for, but if you do, this is what I'm using:

    public static double Parse(string str, char decimalSep)
    {
        string s = GetInvariantParseString(str, decimalSep);
        return double.Parse(s, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
    }

    public static bool TryParse(string str, char decimalSep, out double result)
    {
        // NumberStyles.Float | NumberStyles.AllowThousands got from Reflector
        return double.TryParse(GetInvariantParseString(str, decimalSep), NumberStyles.Float | NumberStyles.AllowThousands, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, out result);
    }

    private static string GetInvariantParseString(string str, char decimalSep)
    {
        str = str.Replace(" ", "");

        if (decimalSep != '.')
            str = SwapChar(str, decimalSep, '.');

        return str;
    }
    public static string SwapChar(string value, char from, char to)
    {
        if (value == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("value");

        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

        foreach (var item in value)
        {
            char c = item;
            if (c == from)
                c = to;
            else if (c == to)
                c = from;

            builder.Append(c);
        }
        return builder.ToString();
    }

    private static void ParseTestErr(string p, char p_2)
    {
        double res;
        bool b = TryParse(p, p_2, out res);
        if (b)
            throw new Exception();
    }

    private static void ParseTest(double p, string p_2, char p_3)
    {
        double d = Parse(p_2, p_3);
        if (d != p)
            throw new Exception();
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ParseTest(100100100.100, "100.100.100,100", ',');
        ParseTest(100100100.100, "100,100,100.100", '.');
        ParseTest(100100100100, "100.100.100.100", ',');
        ParseTest(100100100100, "100,100,100,100", '.');
        ParseTestErr("100,100,100,100", ',');
        ParseTestErr("100.100.100.100", '.');
        ParseTest(100100100100, "100 100 100 100.0", '.');
        ParseTest(100100100.100, "100 100 100.100", '.');
        ParseTest(100100100.100, "100 100 100,100", ',');
        ParseTest(100100100100, "100 100 100,100", '.');
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1.234.567,89", ',');    
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1 234 567,89", ',');    
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1 234 567.89",     '.');
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1,234,567.89",    '.');
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1234567,89",     ',');
        ParseTest(1234567.89, "1234567.89",  '.');
        ParseTest(123456789, "123456789", '.');
        ParseTest(123456789, "123456789", ',');
        ParseTest(123456789, "123.456.789", ',');
        ParseTest(1234567890, "1.234.567.890", ',');
    }

This should work with any culture. It correctly fails to parse strings that has more than one decimal separator, unlike implementations that replace instead of swap.