Decode.Extensions 3.0.0

Decode.Extensions

General purpose extension methods for .NET basic types, designed to simplify common operations like type conversion, enum parsing, and validation.

📦 Installation

dotnet add package Decode.Extensions

🛠️ Usage

1. Object Extensions (Type Conversion)

The library provides a suite of methods to handle type conversion safely and concisely.

Basic Conversion (To<T>)

Converts an object to a target type.

string input = "100";
int value = input.To<int>();

Culture (changed in 2.0.0). Conversion always uses InvariantCulture. These helpers map values coming from databases, API payloads and configuration, which are culture-neutral, so honouring the machine's regional settings made the same input produce different results on different hosts: under pt-BR, "1.5".To<decimal>() previously returned 15. It now returns 1.5 everywhere.

Types that do not implement IConvertible are handled explicitly, so they work like any other:

Guid id = "6f9619ff-8b86-d011-b42d-00c04fc964ff".To<Guid>();
DateTimeOffset when = "2026-01-15T10:30:00+00:00".To<DateTimeOffset>();
TimeSpan window = "01:30:00".To<TimeSpan>();

Before 2.0.0 these threw InvalidCastException — and the ToOrDefault/ToOrNull variants swallowed it, silently handing back Guid.Empty instead of the parsed value.

Safe Conversion with Default (ToOrDefault<T>)

Returns the default value of T if the input is null or conversion fails.

string? invalidInput = "abc";
int value = invalidInput.ToOrDefault<int>(); // returns 0

Safe Conversion to Nullable (ToOrNull<T>)

Returns null if the input is null or conversion fails (for value types).

string? input = "not a number";
int? value = input.ToOrNull<int>(); // returns null

2. Enum Extensions

Parse to Enum (ToEnum<T>)

string statusStr = "Active";
UserStatus status = statusStr.ToEnum<UserStatus>();

Safe Parse to Enum (ToEnumOrNull<T>)

string? invalidStatus = "UnknownValue";
UserStatus? status = invalidStatus.ToEnumOrNull<UserStatus>(); // returns null

3. Validation

Check if Parseable (IsParseableTo<T>)

Returns true if the conversion is possible without throwing an exception.

object rawValue = "123";
if (rawValue.IsParseableTo<int>())
{
    // safe to convert
}

📄 License

MIT License.