Why am I getting System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String] instead of the list's contents? [duplicate]

Question

I decided to make a small little console based RPG to learn classes. I have a basic game going, but I have a problem. I'm trying to display the players inventory from the Player class in another class.

I'm using a List to hold the players inventory.

public List<string> inventory = new List<string>();

This is in the Players class file.

Then in the Shop Class, I'm doing;

Player player = new Player();

To make a new object to access the player class. Then to add something to the List in the shop, I'm doing;

player.inventory.Add("Axe");

But if I make the player.inventory(); print out in the console, I get the wrong result:

System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]

How can I fix this? I should get Axe instead.

Answer 1

You require a foreach loop to iterate each and every member of your list. You can't just print the list as a whole.

You need something like:

foreach(var i in Player.Inventory)
{
    Console.WriteLine(i);
}

Answer 2

You're trying to print a list object and not the values contained within the list, you need something like: -

foreach(var i in player.Inventory)
{
     Console.WriteLine(i);
}

Edit* As per comments

Console.Write(string.Join(System.Environment.NewLine, player.Inventory));