Generic TryParse, convert string to any type

I came up with this nifty little extension method today. This method works in a similar fashion to TryParse but you can pass in any type. You may want to throw an exception if converter == null, as that means there is no converter available for the specified type.

    using System.ComponentModel;
...

    public static bool GenericTryParse<T>(this string input, out T value)
    {
        var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));
 
        if (converter != null && converter.IsValid(input))
        {
            value = (T)converter.ConvertFromString(input);
            return true;
        }
        value = default(T);
        return false;
    }

Scott Hanselman has a post that talks more about TypeDescriptor.GetConverter and how to roll your own converters. Also read the comments on that post for some potential gotchas with using TypeConverters.