DataRow: Select cell value by a given column name

Question

I have a problem with a DataRow that I\'m really struggling with.

The datarow is read in from an Excel spreadsheet using an OleDbConnection.

If I try to sele

Answer 1

On top of what Jimmy said, you can also make the select generic by using Convert.ChangeType along with the necessary null checks:

public T GetColumnValue(DataRow row, string columnName)
  {
        T value = default(T);
        if (row.Table.Columns.Contains(columnName) && row[columnName] != null && !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(row[columnName].ToString()))
        {
            value = (T)Convert.ChangeType(row[columnName].ToString(), typeof(T));
        }

        return value;
  }