What's the equivalent of VB's Asc() and Chr() functions in C#?

VB has a couple of native functions for converting a char to an ASCII value and vice versa - Asc() and Chr().

Now I need to get the equivalent functionality in C#. What's the best way?

Solution 1:

You could always add a reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic and then use the exact same methods: Strings.Chr and Strings.Asc.

That's the easiest way to get the exact same functionality.

Solution 2:

For Asc() you can cast the char to an int like this:

int i = (int)your_char;

and for Chr() you can cast back to a char from an int like this:

char c = (char)your_int;

Here is a small program that demonstrates the entire thing:

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        char c = 'A';
        int i = 65;

        // both print "True"
        Console.WriteLine(i == (int)c);
        Console.WriteLine(c == (char)i);
    }
}

Solution 3:

I got these using resharper, the exact code runs by VB on your machine

/// <summary>
/// Returns the character associated with the specified character code.
/// </summary>
/// 
/// <returns>
/// Returns the character associated with the specified character code.
/// </returns>
/// <param name="CharCode">Required. An Integer expression representing the <paramref name="code point"/>, or character code, for the character.</param><exception cref="T:System.ArgumentException"><paramref name="CharCode"/> &lt; 0 or &gt; 255 for Chr.</exception><filterpriority>1</filterpriority>
public static char Chr(int CharCode)
{
  if (CharCode < (int) short.MinValue || CharCode > (int) ushort.MaxValue)
    throw new ArgumentException(Utils.GetResourceString("Argument_RangeTwoBytes1", new string[1]
    {
      "CharCode"
    }));
  if (CharCode >= 0 && CharCode <= (int) sbyte.MaxValue)
    return Convert.ToChar(CharCode);
  try
  {
    Encoding encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(Utils.GetLocaleCodePage());
    if (encoding.IsSingleByte && (CharCode < 0 || CharCode > (int) byte.MaxValue))
      throw ExceptionUtils.VbMakeException(5);
    char[] chars = new char[2];
    byte[] bytes = new byte[2];
    Decoder decoder = encoding.GetDecoder();
    if (CharCode >= 0 && CharCode <= (int) byte.MaxValue)
    {
      bytes[0] = checked ((byte) (CharCode & (int) byte.MaxValue));
      decoder.GetChars(bytes, 0, 1, chars, 0);
    }
    else
    {
      bytes[0] = checked ((byte) ((CharCode & 65280) >> 8));
      bytes[1] = checked ((byte) (CharCode & (int) byte.MaxValue));
      decoder.GetChars(bytes, 0, 2, chars, 0);
    }
    return chars[0];
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
    throw ex;
  }
}


/// <summary>
/// Returns an Integer value representing the character code corresponding to a character.
/// </summary>
/// 
/// <returns>
/// Returns an Integer value representing the character code corresponding to a character.
/// </returns>
/// <param name="String">Required. Any valid Char or String expression. If <paramref name="String"/> is a String expression, only the first character of the string is used for input. If <paramref name="String"/> is Nothing or contains no characters, an <see cref="T:System.ArgumentException"/> error occurs.</param><filterpriority>1</filterpriority>
public static int Asc(char String)
{
  int num1 = Convert.ToInt32(String);
  if (num1 < 128)
    return num1;
  try
  {
    Encoding fileIoEncoding = Utils.GetFileIOEncoding();
    char[] chars = new char[1]
    {
      String
    };
    if (fileIoEncoding.IsSingleByte)
    {
      byte[] bytes = new byte[1];
      fileIoEncoding.GetBytes(chars, 0, 1, bytes, 0);
      return (int) bytes[0];
    }
    byte[] bytes1 = new byte[2];
    if (fileIoEncoding.GetBytes(chars, 0, 1, bytes1, 0) == 1)
      return (int) bytes1[0];
    if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
    {
      byte num2 = bytes1[0];
      bytes1[0] = bytes1[1];
      bytes1[1] = num2;
    }
    return (int) BitConverter.ToInt16(bytes1, 0);
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
    throw ex;
  }
}


/// <summary>
/// Returns an Integer value representing the character code corresponding to a character.
/// </summary>
/// 
/// <returns>
/// Returns an Integer value representing the character code corresponding to a character.
/// </returns>
/// <param name="String">Required. Any valid Char or String expression. If <paramref name="String"/> is a String expression, only the first character of the string is used for input. If <paramref name="String"/> is Nothing or contains no characters, an <see cref="T:System.ArgumentException"/> error occurs.</param><filterpriority>1</filterpriority>
public static int Asc(string String)
{
  if (String == null || String.Length == 0)
    throw new ArgumentException(Utils.GetResourceString("Argument_LengthGTZero1", new string[1]
    {
      "String"
    }));
  return Strings.Asc(String[0]);
}

Resources are just stored error message, so somehow the way you want ignore them, and the other two method which you do not have access to are as follow:

internal static Encoding GetFileIOEncoding()
{
    return Encoding.Default;
}

internal static int GetLocaleCodePage()
{
    return Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ANSICodePage;
}