Check out CDbl function. CDbl(Range("A1").Value) converts the value in cell
A1 to double.

"My interest" wrote:

Somewhat I remember I used to be able to do sth like the the following

double[,] values = (double[,])excel_range.Value2

But it seems to be not working any more, throwing an exception "cannot
convert System.Object[,] to System.Double[,]"

Of course, I can do iteration and, as a bottom line, using
Double.Parse(cell_value.ToString()). The question is there a more
efficient way to do the job?

I am using Office XP with PIA.

Thanks.