C#: function that can return integer or string

Question

I am creating a coding language in c#, and for the indexing of arrays and dictionaries, I need to have a function that returns the int value of a given string if possible, otherwise it must return the string itself. The problem is that the function doesn't know which datatype it needs to return, so i need a function that can return both integer and string. Does anyone know how to do that?

Answer 1

Function or methods can return only one data type at the time. I would suggest make different methods and call them according to condition and get the value.

Answer 2

I even found a better solution. I can use the dynamic data type. I think this will be my function:

static dynamic intOrString(string str)
{
try {
return Convert.ToInt32(str);
} catch(Exception e) {
return str;
}
}

Answer 3

somebody Yes it's right. I didn't knew about dynamic in C#. But your input should be string means 10 should not pass as integer. For example

static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(intOrString(10 + ""));
}

static dynamic intOrString(string str)
{
try {
return Convert.ToInt32(str);
} catch(Exception e) {
return str;
}
}

Answer 4

That's not really an option in my case, since the function is to check if the value is an int or a string, so you don't know it before you use the function. I think I'm just going to create a class with a public string datatype, a public int x and a public string y.

Answer 5

AJ #Infinity Love it will return the integer 10, because no error will occur when you try to convert the value 10 + "" to an integer. 10 + "" is actually the same as "10" and is convertable to an integer. However, it will be written as a string, because you can only output text. I just tried it, I made the program print the type of the dynamic value with

dynamic x = intOrString(10 + "");
Console.WriteLine(x.GetType().ToString());

The output was 'System.Int32'.

Answer 6

int k;
string s="12345";
bool b=int.TryParse(s,out k);
if(b==true)
Console.Write(k);
else
Console.Write(s);

You can try this too..

Answer 7

Yes, but then you would have to write the same code over and over. I needed one function that returns the Int32 value of the string if possible, otherwise it has to return the string. I already found how to do that.