Will converting Char.GetNumericValue() to int destroy information?

Question

I am implementing GetHashCode() . I want to sum the values in a property called string Id then divide by some constant and return the result. I am using GetNumericValue() :

int sum = 0;
 foreach (var ch in Id)
  sum += char.GetNumericValue(ch);

But it seems that GetNumericValue returns double . is it ok to convert it into an int ?

I thought that Unicode characters are represented by whole number, why is double returned? And is it okay to ignore it?

Answer 1

Why is double returned?

While 0-9 are the standard digits, actually there are some Unicode characters that represent numbers, some of them are floating point like ⅔ or ½ . Let's get an example:

var ch = char.GetNumericValue('½');
Console.WriteLine(ch);// 0.5 output

Answer 2

Yes, it will lose data for some values , since this is the numerical value of unicode characters that are themselves numbers - and unicode includes characters that are non-integer numbers:

var val = char.GetNumericValue('½'); // or ¼, or ꠲, or ⳽
System.Console.WriteLine(val);