Moving along through our .NET Exception Handling series, today we'll dig into the System.InvalidCastException. Put simply, a System.InvalidCastException is thrown when trying to perform some type of conversion an object to an invalid type.
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In this article we'll examine everything about the System.InvalidCastException, including where it sits within the .NET exception hierarchy and by giving a few code examples to illustrate how this exception might come about. Let's get going!
The Technical Rundown
- All .NET exceptions are derived classes of the
System.Exceptionbase class, or derived from another inherited class therein. System.SystemExceptionis inherited from theSystem.Exceptionclass.System.InvalidCastExceptioninherits directly fromSystem.SystemException.
When Should You Use It?
There are a number of possible ways to throw a System.InvalidCastException, so let's just jump right into some example code to see exactly what this error means and how to deal with it.
Probably the most commonly used technique that could result in a System.InvalidCastException is performing a cast to convert one type to another type. In statically-typed languages like C#, after a variable is declared, it typically cannot be declared again or used to store data that is incompatible with that particular type. By using a cast, we're able to tell the common language runtime (CLR) that we want to convert from one type to another while acknowledging that there could be data loss in the process.
The cast syntax is typically to precede the variable name with the type to be cast into, which should be within bounded parentheses. For example, here we want to cast an integer to a decimal:
int value = 10;
decimal dec = (decimal)value;
Logging.Log($"Cast succeeded from {value.GetType().Name} to {dec.GetType().Name}.");
// Cast succeeded from Int32 to Decimal.
This works without a problem because .NET understands how to properly convert from an integer (whole number) to a decimal representation of that same number.
However, trouble can occur when trying to perform what is known as downcasting: Trying to convert an instance of a base (parent) type to one of its derived (child) types. For example, here we have a simple Book class with an Author and Titleproperty. We then inherit the Book class to create the PublishedBook class, which adds the PublishedAt property:
public class Book
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Author { get; set; }public Book(string title, string author)
{
Title = title;
Author = author;
}
}public class PublishedBook : Book
{
public DateTime PublishedAt { get; set; }public PublishedBook(string title, string author, DateTime published_at)
: base(title, author)
{
Title = title;
Author = author;
PublishedAt = published_at;
}
}
Let's try to cast an instance of of Book to the derived type of PublishedBook:
private static void CastToDerivedType()
{
try
{
var book = new Book("Sword in the Darkness", "Stephen King");// Downcasting PublishedBook to base type of Book.
var castBook = (PublishedBook)book;
Logging.Log("Downcasting successful:");
Logging.Log(castBook);
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("Downcasting failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
Sure enough, this fails and throws a System.InvalidCastException:
Downcasting failed.
[EXPECTED] System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'Airbrake.InvalidCastException.Book' to type 'Airbrake.InvalidCastException.PublishedBook'.
While downcasting like this doesn't work, let's try upcasting instead, in which we convert from a derived type "up" to a base type:
private static void CastToBaseType()
{
try
{
var publishedBook = new PublishedBook("It", "Stephen King", new DateTime(1986, 9, 1));// Upcasting PublishedBook to base type of Book.
var castBook = (Book)publishedBook;
Logging.Log("Upcasting successful.");
Logging.Log(castBook);
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("Upcasting failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
The output shows us that upcasting works just fine, since the CLR knows how to "reduce" a more complex object and convert to its simpler, base type.
Upcasting successful.
{Airbrake.InvalidCastException.PublishedBook}
PublishedAt: 9/1/1986
Title: "It"
Author: "Stephen King"
Another common action that could throw a System.InvalidCastException is when trying to use the cast operator syntax to convert to a string value. Here we're attempting to convert our age object to a string value via casting:
private static void CastToString()
{
try
{
object age = 30;
// Attempt cast to string.
string convertedAge = (string)age;
Logging.Log($"Converted age is: {convertedAge}.");
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("String cast failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
Unfortunately, .NET isn't pleased with this and fails while also throwing a System.InvalidCastException:
String cast failed.
[EXPECTED] System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'System.Int32' to type 'System.String'.
The recommended technique to use here is to call the ToString() method on the object in question. Since ToString() is defined by the Object class (and thus is inherited by all derived objects therein), it's always available and will work:
private static void CallToStringMethod()
{
try
{
object age = 30;
// Convert via the ToString() method.
string convertedAge = age.ToString();
Logging.Log($"Converted age is: {convertedAge}.");
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("ToString() method conversion failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
This works just fine and outputs our converted age:
Converted age is: 30.
While there are a few others ways to incur a sysex, the last technique we'll cover here is when trying to call a primitive type's IConvertible implementation to perform a conversion to a type that isn't supported. The IConvertible interface can be used to provide a wide range of conversion methods, allowing the implementing type to convert to common language runtime types such as Boolean, String, Int32, and so forth.
To see IConvertible in practice, here we have a simple example where we're trying to convert from a bool to a char type using IConvertible's ToChar() method:
private static void ConvertBoolToChar()
{
try
{
bool value = true;
// Create an IConvertible interface.
IConvertible converter = value;
// Convert using ToChar() method.
Char character = converter.ToChar(null);
Logging.Log($"Conversion from Bool to Char succeeded.");
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("Conversion failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
Unfortunately, there's no way to convert from a bool to char so a System.InvalidCastException is thrown:
Conversion failed.
[EXPECTED] System.InvalidCastException: Invalid cast from 'Boolean' to 'Char'.
The only solution in cases like this is to ensure the types you're working with are compatible with one another, meaning that the CLR knows how to convert from one to the other. Here we're trying to convert from an int to to Char, which should work just fine:
private static void ConvertIntToChar()
{
try
{
int value = 25;
// Create an IConvertible interface.
IConvertible converter = value;
// Convert using ToChar() method.
Char character = converter.ToChar(null);
Logging.Log($"Conversion from int to Char succeeded.");
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException exception)
{
Logging.Log("Conversion failed.");
Logging.Log(exception);
}
}
Sure enough, the CLR knows how to convert from an intger to a character, so our conversion is successful:
Conversion from Int to Char succeeded.
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