How to check if a string is a number in C#

Steps to check if a string is a number in C#

1. Declare an integer variable.
2. Pass string to int.TryParse() or double.TryParse() methods with out variable.
3. If the string is a number TryParse method will return true. And assigns value to the declared integer out value.

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Check if a string is a Number or not in C# #

For example we have a string variable “123” and if you want to check whether it is numeric use the below C# code.

var stringNumber = "123";
int numericValue;
bool isNumber = int.TryParse(stringNumber, out numericValue);

//isNumber is true and numericValue=123

var stringNumber = "123P";
int numericValue;
bool isNumber = int.TryParse(stringNumber, out numericValue);

//isNumber is false and numericValue=0 default value

From C# 7 onwards we can declare out variable in TryParse Method itself.

bool isNumber = int.TryParse(stringNumber, out int numericValue);

The problem with the above int.TryParse method is it cannot check for negative string number values.

Checking for negative string number in C# #

To Check for negative string number values we can use C# double.TryParse() method.

var negativeString = "-123";
double number;
if(double.TryParse(negativeString,out number)){
   if (number > 0){

   }else{
       //negative number 
   }   
}

Best way to check if string is number in C# #

Always use double.TryParse() method to check if a string is number, because it can validate both positive and negative numbers.