TryCast and DirectCast are casting operators that directly map to the CLR’s support for casting. They can quickly cast an object of a base type to a derived type or unbox a value of a value type. DirectCast throws an exception when the cast isn’t possible, TryCast returns Nothing if it failed. You typically want … Read more
It seems clear that the functionality you want is not in C#. Try this though… static T DirectCast<T>(object o, Type type) where T : class { if (!(type.IsInstanceOfType(o))) { throw new ArgumentException(); } T value = o as T; if (value == null && o != null) { throw new InvalidCastException(); } return value; } … Read more
The first thing to note is VB.NET does not have a direct analog to C#’s (type)instance casting mechanism. I bring this up because it’s useful as a starting point and common reference in comparing the two VB.NET operators (and they are operators, not functions, even though they have function semantics). DirectCast() is more strict than … Read more