Getting a value from an Excel sheet column

The code below gets value from a column in an Excel sheet. The values I get are B1, B2, B3, B4...., B100, ...Bn. All I need to do is strip out the char 'B' and convert the numeric string to integer and count how many times a particular integer has repeated.

The snippet below shows the string stripping the char 'B'. However I feel it can be done in better way but I don't know how.

if (range.Text.ToString() == "BayID")
{
    range = null;
    range = readSheet.get_Range(cell, Missing.Value);
    while (range.Text.ToString() != "")
    {
        range = null;
        string A1 = String.Empty, Val = String.Empty;
        char[] value = null;
        range = readSheet.get_Range(cell, Missing.Value);
        A1 = range.Text.ToString();
        value = A1.ToCharArray();
        j++;
        cell = "D" + j;
        for (int i = 1; i < value.Length; i++)
        { 
            Val += value[i]; 
        }
   }
}

Don't be afraid of having more variables. I suspect that the value in range has a different contextual meaning when it is used in the first if clause vs the inside of the while loop. If this is the case, make two different variables with names that describe what the contextual meaning is for the specific variable. The type system will help you know the variable is a Range. A name like price or id (it all depends on what you are using it for) will make the code easier to read.

Building on what @Malachi said: You don't need to define your variables at the beginning and assign them a default value.

string A1 = String.Empty, Val = String.Empty;
char[] value = null;
range = readSheet.get_Range(cell, Missing.Value);
A1 = range.Text.ToString();
value = A1.ToCharArray();

//is the same as

range = readSheet.get_Range(cell, Missing.Value);
string A1 = range.Text.ToString();
char[] value = A1.ToCharArray();

StackExchange Code Review Q#30762, answer score: 3