Question

I am having a problem with data type conversion that I just can figure out

 HiddenField hfFriendId = item.FindControl("hfFriendId") as HiddenField;
 Int32 FriendId = Convert.ToInt32(hfFriendId.Value);

I need to use FriendId as and int32 in the following

UserInfo TargetUser = UserController.GetUserById(PortalSettings.PortalId, FriendId);

as both args are expected to be int32.
When I debug this ‘TargetUser’ is null.

What might the problem be?

Answer 1

If you are not sure of the value available in the hiddenfield then instead of using

Int32 FriendId = Convert.ToInt32(hfFriendId.Value);

Try

int FriendId = int.Parse(hfFriendId.Value); // will throw exception if parse fails

or Better

int FriendId ;
if(int.TryParse(hfFriendId.Value, out FriendId))
     //get userinfo

Also it could be an issue with your UserController.GetUserById method in case the Convert gets the value parsed and is not returning zero.