Question

Im using Console.ReadKey() to choose from a number of options that varies from time to time. Before this initial code snippet there is a for loop that counts occurances into counter variable of type int.

The point is to use Console.ReadKey() to get an int.

int choice = ReadKey(); Console.WriteLine('');  if (choice < counter) {     mail.to = result[counter-1].email; } 

By using the following methods

static int ReadKey() {     ConsoleKeyInfo choice = Console.ReadKey();     char convertedchoice = choice.KeyChar;     string convertedchoice2 = convertedchoice.ToString();     int result = TryInt(convertedchoice2);     return result; }  static int TryInt(string totry) {     while (true)     {         int result;         if (int.TryParse(totry, out result))         {             return result;         }         Console.WriteLine('Sorry, you need to enter a number. Try again.');     } } 

I tried using ToString() but this was the way that it would let me do it in the end. So this looks kind of inneffective to me and hence I would really appreciate some guidance as what to do differently?

Edit:

I ended up with a combination of all the good answers below. Thanks alot guys.

static int ReadKey() {     while (true)     {         ConsoleKeyInfo choice = Console.ReadKey();         if (char.IsDigit(choice.KeyChar))         {             int answer = Convert.ToInt32(choice.KeyChar);             return answer - 48; //-48 because 0 is represented in unicode by 48 and 1 by 49 etc etc         }         Console.WriteLine('\nSorry, you need to input a number');     } } 

Answer 1

For a menu system with choices 0..9 this is reasonably OK. Not for reading larger numbers though.

Your whole checking logic can be made a lot easier with char.IsDigit() :

if char.IsDigit(convertedchoice) {   int result = convertedchoice - '0';    // char1 - char2 = int, in this case in 0..9   return result; } else ...