How can I use a certain class as String?

Question

Code1

public class Human
{
    private string h_name = "";
    private string h_gender = "Male";
    private int h_age = 0;
    public string Name
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }
    public string Gender
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }
    public int Age
    {
        get { return h_age; }
        set { h_age = value; }
    }

}

Code2

public class Here
{
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        Human hm = new Human();
        hm.Name = "Bill";
        hm.Gender = "Male";
        hm.Age = 20;
    }
}

Now, I'd like to use the variable "hm" as String where hm will return the Name property... something like:

string person = hm;
Console.WriteLine(person + " has greeted you!");

What will I do? Should I make an Extension or something?

---

I overridden the ToString() method, and yes, it works on Console.WriteLine()

but now, I want to store it as string in a string variable

string person = hm;
Console.WriteLine(person);

and I get this

Cannot implicitly convert type 'Human' to 'string'

I also want to use it in my VB.NET program, but it gives me this error when I concatenate it:

Operator '&' is not defined for types 'String' and 'Human'

---

Answer 1

^{vb.net answer:}

As state by others, you need to define a conversion operator. If you want to support string concatenation then you also need to define the & operator.

Public Class Human

    Public Property Name As String

    Public Shared Widening Operator CType(value As Human) As String
        Return value.Name
    End Operator

    Public Shared Operator &(left As Human, right As String) As String
        Return (left.Name & right)
    End Operator

    Public Shared Operator &(left As String, right As Human) As String
        Return (left & right.Name)
    End Operator

    Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
        Return Me.Name
    End Function

End Class

Answer 2

An implicit convention by adding the following to the Human class would work

public static implicit operator string(Human h)
    {
        return h.Name;
    }

Although i think the best way is to override the ToString Method like so

public override string ToString()
{
   return Name;
} 

Answer 3

Override ToString() method.

public class Human
    {
    public override ToString() { return Name }

    private string h_name = "";
    private string h_gender = "Male";
    private int h_age = 0;
    public string Name
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }
    public string Gender
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }
    public int Age
    {
        get { return h_age; }
        set { h_age = value; }
    }
}

Your code would then look like this:

Console.WriteLine(hm + " has greeted you!");

Answer 4

You could override the ToString method:

public class Human
{
    private string h_name = "";
    private string h_gender = "Male";
    private int h_age = 0;

    public string Name
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }

    public string Gender
    {
        get { return h_name; }
        set { h_name = value; }
    }

    public int Age
    {
        get { return h_age; }
        set { h_age = value; }
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Name;
    } 
}

Answer 5

You can declare an implicit conversion from your type to string using operator overloading. But it's a bad idea. I suggest you to override ToString method in your class instead, then you can just output it like this:

Console.WriteLine(hm + " has greeted you!");

There is also a good documentation on how to override ToString method

• How To: Override the ToString Method (C# Programming Guide)