Question

Hi I found this function in a utilities code file:

Version 1:

public static bool IsValidLong(string strLong)
{
    bool result = true;
    try
    {
        long tmp = long.Parse(strLong);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        result = false;
    }
    return result;
}

I want to replace this (and validators for other types) with following:

Version 2:

public static bool IsValidLong(string strLong)
{
    long l;
    return long.TryParse(strLong, out l);
}

which version is better and why?

Answer 1

The first exists because the 2nd didn’t at one point (Int64.TryParse() was added in .Net 2.0)…use the second version, why not take advantage of the features the framework adds in the newer releases if they’re available to you? 🙂

The second is much clearer, leaner and more maintinable…I’d say it’s a much better approach… it just wasn’t available before.

Also, I believe TryParse() doesn’t actually throw any exception internally, so it would be slower in a successful parse, but much quicker/less expensive than throwing an exception in the case of a failed parse.