Question

Why can’t I convert object to decimal (code is below, record["Cost"] is equal 1 (int))?

I get following error

‘can not unbox record[“Cost”]’

I will use TryParse method, but I don’t understand what is source of this error.

cost = (decimal?) record["Cost"];

Answer 1

The value of record["Cost"] is a boxed int. Unboxing conversions only allow you to convert to the same type. (At least broadly; there are a few differences, but they’re irrelevant here.)

What you should do is unbox to int and then convert to decimal?:

cost = (decimal?) (int) record["Cost"];

Or if cost is already declared as type decimal?, you can use the implicit conversion:

cost = (int) record["Cost"];