Enum.ToString Method (String)
Converts the value of this instance to its equivalent string representation using the specified format.
Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Parameters
- format
- Type: System.String
A format string.
Return Value
Type: System.StringThe string representation of the value of this instance as specified by format.
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| FormatException | format contains an invalid specification. |
| InvalidOperationException | format equals "X", but the enumeration type is unknown. |
The format parameter can contain the "G" or "g", "D" or "d", "X" or "x", and "F" or "f" format strings. If format is null or an empty string (""), the general format specifier ("G") is used. For more information about formatting enumeration values, see Enumeration Format Strings. For more information about formatting in general, see Formatting Types.
Notes to CallersIf multiple enumeration members have the same underlying value and you attempt to retrieve the string representation of an enumeration member's name based on its underlying value, your code should not make any assumptions about which name the method will return. For example, the following enumeration defines two members, Shade.Gray and Shade.Grey, that have the same underlying value.
The following method call attempts to retrieve the name of a member of the Shade enumeration whose underlying value is 1. The method can return either "Gray" or "Grey", and your code should not make any assumptions about which string will be returned.
The following example demonstrates how to convert an enumerated value to a string.
// Sample for Enum.ToString(String) using System; class Sample { enum Colors {Red, Green, Blue, Yellow = 12}; public static void Main() { Colors myColor = Colors.Yellow; Console.WriteLine("Colors.Red = {0}", Colors.Red.ToString("d")); Console.WriteLine("Colors.Green = {0}", Colors.Green.ToString("d")); Console.WriteLine("Colors.Blue = {0}", Colors.Blue.ToString("d")); Console.WriteLine("Colors.Yellow = {0}", Colors.Yellow.ToString("d")); Console.WriteLine("{0}myColor = Colors.Yellow{0}", Environment.NewLine); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"g\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("g")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"G\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("G")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"x\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("x")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"X\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("X")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"d\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("d")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"D\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("D")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"f\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("f")); Console.WriteLine("myColor.ToString(\"F\") = {0}", myColor.ToString("F")); } } /* This example produces the following results: Colors.Red = 0 Colors.Green = 1 Colors.Blue = 2 Colors.Yellow = 12 myColor = Colors.Yellow myColor.ToString("g") = Yellow myColor.ToString("G") = Yellow myColor.ToString("x") = 0000000C myColor.ToString("X") = 0000000C myColor.ToString("d") = 12 myColor.ToString("D") = 12 myColor.ToString("f") = Yellow myColor.ToString("F") = Yellow */
Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)
The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
