Overriding ToString() of List<MyClass>

Question

I have a class MyClass, and I would like to override the method ToString() of instances of List:

class MyClass {     public string Property1 { get; set; }     public int Property2 { get; set; }     /* ... */     public override string ToString()     {         return Property1.ToString() + "-" + Property2.ToString();     } } 

I would like to have the following:

var list = new List<MyClass>             {                 new MyClass { Property1 = "A", Property2 = 1 },                 new MyClass { Property1 = "Z", Property2 = 2 },             };  Console.WriteLine(list.ToString());   /* prints: A-1,Z-2 */ 

Is it possible to do so? Or I would have to subclass List<MyClass> to override the method ToString() in my subclass? Can I solve this problem using extension methods (ie, is it possible to override a method with an extension method)?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I use a ToDelimitedString extension method which works for any IEnumerable<T>. You can (optionally) specify the delimiter to use and a delegate to perform a custom string conversion for each element:

// if you've already overridden ToString in your MyClass object... Console.WriteLine(list.ToDelimitedString()); // if you don't have a custom ToString method in your MyClass object... Console.WriteLine(list.ToDelimitedString(x => x.Property1 + "-" + x.Property2));  // ...  public static class MyExtensionMethods {     public static string ToDelimitedString<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)     {         return source.ToDelimitedString(x => x.ToString(),             CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator);     }      public static string ToDelimitedString<T>(         this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, string> converter)     {         return source.ToDelimitedString(converter,             CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator);     }      public static string ToDelimitedString<T>(         this IEnumerable<T> source, string separator)     {         return source.ToDelimitedString(x => x.ToString(), separator);     }      public static string ToDelimitedString<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source,         Func<T, string> converter, string separator)     {         return string.Join(separator, source.Select(converter).ToArray());     } }