StringBuilder.ToString Method (System.Text)

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.NET Framework Class Library
StringBuilder.ToString Method

Updated: January 2012

Converts the value of this instance to a String.

Namespace:  System.Text
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Syntax

Visual Basic
Public Overrides Function ToString As String
C#
public override string ToString()
Visual C++
public:
virtual String^ ToString() override
F#
abstract ToString : unit -> string 
override ToString : unit -> string 

Return Value

Type: System.String
A string whose value is the same as this instance.
Remarks

You must call the ToString method to convert the StringBuilder object to a String object before you can pass the string represented by the StringBuilder object to a method that has a String parameter or display it in the user interface.

Examples

The following example demonstrates calling the ToString method. This example is part of a larger example provided for the StringBuilder class.

Visual Basic

' Display the number of characters in the StringBuilder and its string.
Console.WriteLine("{0} chars: {1}", sb.Length, sb.ToString())


C#

// Display the number of characters in the StringBuilder and its string.
Console.WriteLine("{0} chars: {1}", sb.Length, sb.ToString());


Visual C++

// Display the number of characters in the StringBuilder
// and its string.
Console::WriteLine("{0} chars: {1}", sb->Length, sb->ToString());


Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Portable Class Library

Supported in: Portable Class Library
Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
See Also

Reference

Change History

Date

History

Reason

January 2012

Added the Remarks section.

Customer feedback.

Community Content

R Petrusha - MSFT
StringBuilder.ToString() does not place returned string to string intern pool

See documentation of String.Intern() and following MSDN example for details:

// Sample for String.Intern(String)
using System;
using System.Text;
class Sample
{
public static void Main()
{
String s1 = "MyTest";
String s2 = new StringBuilder().Append("My").Append("Test").ToString();
String s3 = String.Intern(s2); Console.WriteLine("s1 == '{0}'", s1);
Console.WriteLine("s2 == '{0}'", s2);
Console.WriteLine("s3 == '{0}'", s3);
Console.WriteLine("Is s2 the same reference as s1?: {0}", (Object)s2==(Object)s1);
Console.WriteLine("Is s3 the same reference as s1?: {0}", (Object)s3==(Object)s1);
}
}
/* This example produces the following results:

s1 == 'MyTest'
s2 == 'MyTest'
s3 == 'MyTest'
Is s2 the same reference as s1?: False
Is s3 the same reference as s1?: True
*/