Need help with accepting decimals as input in C#

Question

I have written a program in C# that runs the Pythagorean Theorem. I would love some help on allowing the program to accept decimal points from the user input. This is what I have.

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Text;

    namespace Project_2
{
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int sideA = 0;
        int sideB = 0;
        double sideC = 0;
        Console.Write("Enter a integer for Side A ");
        sideA = Convert.ToInt16(Console.ReadLine());
        Console.Write("Enter a integer for Side B ");
        sideB = Convert.ToInt16(Console.ReadLine());
        sideC = Math.Pow((sideA * sideA + sideB * sideB), .5);
        Console.Write("Side C has this length...");
        Console.WriteLine(sideC);
        Console.ReadLine();

    }
}
} 

I have been trying to research this by using the Math.Abs and so on only to receive build errors. Help in the write path would be greatly appreciated.

Solution 1

I would recommend using Decimal.TryParse. This pattern is very safe since it traps the exceptions and returns a boolean to determine the success of the parse operation.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.decimal.tryparse.aspx

Solution 2

Math.Pow doesnt take in decimal. There is already another question on SO about Math.Pow and decimal. Use double.

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            double sideA = 0;
            double sideB = 0; 
            double sideC = 0; 
            Console.Write("Enter an integer for Side A ");
            sideA = Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine()); 
            Console.Write("Enter an integer for Side B ");
            sideB = Convert.ToDouble(Console.ReadLine()); 
            sideC = Math.Pow((sideA * sideA + sideB * sideB), .5); 
            Console.Write("Side C has this length..."); 
            Console.WriteLine(sideC); 
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

Comments

[LukeH]

A nitpick: Generally speaking, the various TryParse patterns don't "trap" exceptions; they avoid them altogether.

[Thomas]

That was the trick. My error was with the assignments of the sides. Thank you very much for your help!

[hivie7510]

Fair enough, but they do not expose any exception to the user. That is why this is a good pattern. I use this pattern in custom code as well.

[Peter]

or try "Enter a decimal for Side B " ;)