Parsing an Integer, Double, Date, etc

[Charles D. Ward]

Hi everyone! I'm new to Java and have a question about parsing numeric (primitive?) types.

In VB.NET, when the program I was working in required some user input, and this had to be a valid INT for example, I used the following to attempt to parse the user input to an INT value:

Dim validInt as Integer     //Declare an int where the converted userInput will be stored if the conversion succeeds
If Integer.TryParse(userInput, validInt) Then
     //Conversion succeeded, now validInt holds the userInput. Run this code..
Else
     //Conversion failed, it wasn't a valid int. Warn the user that the input was invalid.
End If

Integer/Double/Date/etc TryParse methods returned a boolean value indicating where the data passed to it could be parsed or not, and if the conversion succeeded it stored the valid converted value in the second argument passed to it so you could use it afterward.

So for the actual question. Is there a similar method in Java? Or should I write my own validation code?
In that case, what would you say is the proper way to do it? Maybe something like int i = Integer.parseInt(someString) with a Try/Catch block?

Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Verdegan]

Yeah, you have to try/catch.

[Piet Souris]

hi Charles,

yup, try/catch with Integer.parseInt(...)

Greetings,
Piet

[Charles D. Ward]

Thanks guys! I have learned a lot reading these forums in the last few days. Your help is much appreciated.

[Campbell Ritchie]

And welcome to the Ranch