System.Convert

This is a type of explicit conversion
If this conversion is not possible then an exception is thrown.
This class contains methods to convert from one base type to another.
This class provides conversion functions as static methods.
Although it is worth noting that the method names are different to the actual data type names.

int myInteger = 10; 
short myShort = System.Convert.ToShort(myInteger); 

string myText = "14"; 
int myInteger = System.Convert.ToInt32(myText); 

VB.Net