In .Net you can read a string value into another data type using either .parse or Convert.To.
.parse
Convert.To
I\'m not fam
Here's an answer for you:
http://www.dotnetspider.com/forum/ViewForum.aspx?ForumId=77428
Though I think in modern versions of .NET, the best thing to do is use TryParse in any case, if there's any doubt that the conversion will work.