[pcroft]

What is the difference between using ivariable.ToString() and (string)ivariable? My understanding is that (string)ivariable is recasting the variable. But how does that differ from ToString()?

Thank you for any help.

[tlhIn`toq]

.ToString() is a method within the class - That's why you see parenthesis.

If you make a custom class (possibly inherited from another class) .NET won't know how to implicitly convert it to a string. So you make (or override) the .ToString() method to provide the exact string you want to return fro your class.

public class Widget
{

   public string ToString()
   {
     // Do some fancy work calculating some value
     // And adding other strings together
     return myFancyCalculatedString;
   }
}

[AdamSpeight2008]

.ToString has nothing to do with casts. A cast is a an operator.

public static explicit operator Int64(dbInt64 x) 
   {

   }

public static implicit operator Int64(dbInt64 x) 
   {
  
   }

.ToString() is more to do with a textual representation of the information in the object, which why it also has an overloads that takes a IFormatProvider and a FormatString. By default it inherits the .ToString from its base class, and ultimately all object inherit from type Object, which provide (through reflection i think.) the fully qualified name of the object. eg. System.Linq.Enumerable.

This post has been edited by AdamSpeight2008: 27 October 2012 - 01:38 PM