How to make a Generic Type Cast function [duplicate]

Answer 1

Something like this?

public static T ConvertValue(string value)
{
    return (T)Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof(T));
}

You can then use it like this:

int val = ConvertValue("42");

Edit:

You can even do this more generic and not rely on a string parameter provided the type U implements IConvertible - this means you have to specify two type parameters though:

public static T ConvertValue(U value) where U : IConvertible
{
    return (T)Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof(T));
}

I considered catching the InvalidCastException exception that might be raised by Convert.ChangeType() - but what would you return in this case? default(T)? It seems more appropriate having the caller deal with the exception.