C#: Dealing with format exception for Convert.ToDouble('Infinity') on Windows 10

Question

I have a C# forms application. As a part of its functionality, it writes double values to a file in string format, some of which are double.Infinity.

There is another part of application that reads these values from file and converts them back to double.

When writing values part is performed on windows 7 and reading the same file is performed on Windows 10, then there is format exception while converting 'infinity'. It appears the symbol used by the default (us-en) culture changed between Windows 8 and 10.

There are many instances of Convert.ToDouble() in application and handling each of these instances through try-catch or by using double.tryParse() isn't a feasible solution as it will require changes in many projects.

Is there any workaround for this to avoid this format exception problem?

Thanks in advance,

Kapil

Answer 1

This is an even bigger issue when dealing with databases and storing data in other cultures too. We initially had a problem in that the Spanish version of our software wouldn't read infinity properly, and would store infinity as the symbol, instead of the word. Even when trying to force it onto the english culture, it appeared broken.

We then saw this issue crop up on Windows 10 in the english culture, where the infinity symbol would now be saved in the database. This issue has the potential to cause problems across Windows versions and across cultures. The safest thing to do is store and retrieve data, whether in a file or a database, using CultureInfo.InvariantCulture. This way it will always be as you expect it.

If you already have a problem in files/database, then you could run a fairly simple script to seek out the 'Double|∞' and replace it with 'Double|Infinity' which is the invariant type. This will save you from future problems