What's the main difference between int.Parse() and Convert.ToInt32

Question

• What is the main difference between int.Parse() and Convert.ToInt32()?
• Which one is to be preferred

Answer 1

TryParse is faster...

The first of these functions, Parse, is one that should be familiar to any .Net developer. This function will take a string and attempt to extract an integer out of it and then return the integer. If it runs into something that it can’t parse then it throws a FormatException or if the number is too large an OverflowException. Also, it can throw an ArgumentException if you pass it a null value.

TryParse is a new addition to the new .Net 2.0 framework that addresses some issues with the original Parse function. The main difference is that exception handling is very slow, so if TryParse is unable to parse the string it does not throw an exception like Parse does. Instead, it returns a Boolean indicating if it was able to successfully parse a number. So you have to pass into TryParse both the string to be parsed and an Int32 out parameter to fill in. We will use the profiler to examine the speed difference between TryParse and Parse in both cases where the string can be correctly parsed and in cases where the string cannot be correctly parsed.

The Convert class contains a series of functions to convert one base class into another. I believe that Convert.ToInt32(string) just checks for a null string (if the string is null it returns zero unlike the Parse) then just calls Int32.Parse(string). I’ll use the profiler to confirm this and to see if using Convert as opposed to Parse has any real effect on performance.

Source with examples

Hope this helps.