Question

I’m trying to read a number from a user input (string) like:

' Where "." is grouping separator and "," is the decimal character
dim strUserInput as string = "172.500,00"
dim ret as double

' Produces 172.5 ("." is the decimal separator)
ret = val(strUserInput)
'
' Alternative Way
' Still producing 172.5
strUserInput = strUserInput.tostring(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) 'nothing changes
ret = val(strUserInput)

How can I correctly use CultureInfo to return 172,500.00 (or 172500,00 or just 172500) to a double var?

Answer 1

From the MSDN documentation for val:

The Val function recognizes only the
period (.) as a valid decimal
separator. When different decimal
separators are used, as in
international applications, use CDbl
or CInt instead to convert a string to
a number. To convert the string
representation of a number in a
particular culture to a numeric value,
use the numeric type’s Parse(String,
IFormatProvider) method. For example,
use
System.Double.Parse(System.String,System.IFormatProvider)
when converting a string to a Double.