Data type conversion in F#

F# has much the same primitive data types as C#. Here are some examples:

let integer = 123
let floating = 23.
let dec = 24M
let bool = true
let text = "This is some string"
let character = 'c'

Occasionally we may need to convert one primitive type to another.

In C# we can conveniently use the Convert class which has a number of static functions like Convert.ToInt32, Convert.ToDecimal, Convert.ToString etc. In F# there are built-in functions such as “int”, “double”, “string” etc. that accept a parameter which must be converted.

Convert a floating point number to an integer:

let convertedInt = int 23.

Convert a string to an integer:

let convertedInt = int "23"

A floating point number will be truncated:

let convertedInt = int 24.56

convertedInt will be 24.

Here’s how to convert an integer to a double:

let convToDouble = double 4

The well-known ToString function is simply called string in F#:

let intToString = string 5

intToString will be “5” as expected.

View all F# related articles here.