Question

The only method I have found is a direct cast:

> $numberAsString = "10"
> [int]$numberAsString
10

Is this the standard approach in Powershell? Is it expected that a test will be done before to ensure that the conversion will succeed and if so how?

Answer 1

Using .net

[int]$b = $null #used after as refence
$b
0
[int32]::TryParse($a , [ref]$b ) # test if is possible to cast and put parsed value in reference variable
True
$b
10
$b.gettype()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     True     Int32                                    System.ValueType

note this (powershell coercing feature)

$a = "10"
$a + 1 #second value is evaluated as [string]
101 

11 + $a # second value is evaluated as [int]
21