Convert.ToChar(String,IFormatProvider) converts the first character of string to a Unicode character with culture format
Imports System.Globalization Public Class DummyProvider Implements IFormatProvider Public Function GetFormat( argType As Type ) As Object Implements IFormatProvider.GetFormat Dim argStr As String = argType.ToString( ) If argStr = "" Then argStr = "Empty" argStr = argStr.Substring( argStr.LastIndexOf( "."c ) + 1 ) Console.Write( "{0,-20}", argStr ) Return Nothing End Function End Class Module ConvertNonNumericProviderDemo Sub Main( ) ' Create an instance of IFormatProvider. Dim provider As New DummyProvider( ) ' Convert these values using DummyProvider. Dim Int32A As String = "-2" Console.WriteLine( Convert.ToInt32( Int32A, provider ) ) End Sub End Module