Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Reflection


Public Class Parser(Of T)

    Public Shared Function TryParse(ByVal input As String, ByRef value As T) As Boolean

        Dim result As Boolean = False
        Dim type As Type = GetType(T)
        Dim pt As Type() = New Type() {GetType(System.String)}
        Dim mi As MethodInfo = type.GetMethod("Parse", pt)
        value = Nothing

        Try
            value = DirectCast((mi.Invoke(Nothing, New Object() {input})), T)
            result = True
        Catch
        End Try

        Return result

    End Function
    Public Shared Function ParseEnum(input As String) As T

        Return CType([Enum].Parse(GetType(T), input), T)

    End Function

End Class

using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class Parser<T>
{
    public static bool TryParse(string input, out T value)
    {
        bool result = false;
        Type type = typeof(T);
        Type[] pt = new Type[] { typeof(System.String)};
        MethodInfo mi = type.GetMethod("Parse", pt);
        value = default(T);

        try
        {
            value = (T)(mi.Invoke(null, new object[] {input}));
            result = (value != null);
        }
        catch {}

        return result;
    }
    public static T ParseEnum(string input)
    {
        return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), input);
    }
}