Home > Posts > Gotcha: .NET Point and PointConverter inconsistency in string format used

Gotcha: .NET Point and PointConverter inconsistency in string format used

I have submitted the following issue to Microsoft Connect (product feedback center):

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/809084/point-class-issue-with-two-way-databinding

Point class issue with two-way databinding

 

In Silverlight, when using databinding code like the following:
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Name="propPosition">
    <sdk:Label Style="{StaticResource PropertyLabelStyle}" Content="Position:" Target="{Binding ElementName=edPosition}" />
     <TextBox Name="edPosition" Text="{Binding Position, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True, NotifyOnValidationError=true}" />
</StackPanel>

and binding (via DataContext) to a View that has the following property:

Point Position { get; set; }

then what you see on the UI is values like 500; 100

but when you try to edit the position and enter say 400; 100 it shows a red message that it is invalid format (caught an exception that is and showing on the UI automatically cause of ValidatesOnExceptions and NotifyOnValidationError being true)
if you enter 400, 100 it works ok (it moves a ClipFlair Studio [http://ClipFlair.net] window arround in my case), so it outputs the two numbers (X, Y) with a ";" but expects to get them separated with a "," (also wonder if it copes OK with numbers in say format used in Greece where decimal point separator is , instead of .)

 

I managed to reproduce the same behaviour in a .NET console program:

//Console program in C# to demonstrate Point.ToString and PointConverter (from string) inconsistency in string format
//(the former outputs X;Y, the later expects X,Y)

using System;
using System.Windows; //for "Point" class (needs WindowsBase.dll reference)

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
  class Program
  {

    static PointConverter conv = new PointConverter();

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      Point p = new Point(10, 20);
      Console.WriteLine(p); //outputs "10;20"
           
      //——————

      Point p1 = (Point)conv.ConvertFrom("10, 20");
      Console.WriteLine(p1); //outputs "10;20"

      //——————

      Point p2 = (Point)conv.ConvertFrom("10; 20"); //unhandled exception "System.FormatException" in mscorlib.dll
      Console.WriteLine(p2); //never reached cause of exception above
    }

  }
}

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