I am using reflection to call a Web Service method and I am facing a weird situation when passing some parameters that require an integer. If I call the Web Service like this, it works:

                Dim loType As Type = loWebService.GetType()
                Dim loInfo As System.Reflection.MethodInfo = loType.GetMethod(lcMethod)
                Dim loParameter(1) As Object
                loParameter(0) = Date.Today
                loParameter(1) = 5
                lcXMLReturned = loInfo.Invoke(loWebService, loParameter)

In this case, the method called requires a date and an integer. Keeping the same method, if I do this, it won't work:

                Dim loType As Type = loWebService.GetType()
                Dim loInfo As System.Reflection.MethodInfo = loType.GetMethod(lcMethod)
                Dim loParameter(1) As Object
                loParameter(0) = Date.Today
                loParameter(1) = Val(lcParameterActual)
                lcXMLReturned = loInfo.Invoke(loWebService, loParameter)

Even if lcParameterActual is equal to "5", making it Val(), won't work. During the Invoke(), I will obtain:

"Cannot widen from target type to primitive type"

I tried putting Int() instead of Val(). This gave the same reaction.

How can I convert my string to something that will work using reflection?