CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
Tim
Tim

Reputation: 99418

What to use instead of string.Format with CultureInfo.InvariantCulture for just a single placeholder?

I heard that there is no need to use string.Format with a single placeholder.

For example, how can I change the following code accordingly, considering CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 

string myString = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "{0}", myMethod());

myMethod() returns a string object.

Btw, I modified some existing code like the following to have one place holder only

string myString = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "{0}{1}", myMethod1(), myMethod2());

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2198

Answers (1)

Evk
Evk

Reputation: 101473

To expand a bit on my comment. For each argument, String.Format checks if object implements IFormattable interface, which looks like this:

public interface IFormattable
{
    string ToString(string format, IFormatProvider formatProvider);
}

If argument implements it - String.Format will call that ToString and pass your formatter there. Otherwise, it will call regular ToString without providing formatter.

A lot of types (both .NET Framework and third party) implement this interface, such as all numeric types, date time and so on. If your myMethod() returns type that implements IFormattable - just call ToString yourself (most such types for convenience also implement ToString with one parameter, which is not part of IFormattable interface):

myMethod().ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

If type does not implement such interface - String.Format will also do nothing useful for it (will not use formatter you passed) - so nothing is lost.

UPDATE: since your argument is string - there is no need to pass formatter to String.Format and in your specific case use String.Format at all. Formatter is used to convert object to string using specific rules, and string is well already a string.

In your old code there was multiple arguments, some of them might not be strings and then passing culture makes sense. Also someone might be on a safe side and decide to pass culture even if all arguments are strings, because who knows what will happen later - someone might add more arguments, or current arguments might change types, and of course when this happens no one will change String.Format to accept invariant culture. So in general such approach does make sense.

However, when only one argument left and that is string - there is no sense any more for such complications - just remove String.Format statement completely and replace with myMethod().

Upvotes: 3

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