String.Format - how it works and how to implement custom formatstrings

Question

With String.Format() it is possible to format for example DateTime objects in many different ways. Every time I am looking for a desired format I need to search around on Internet. Almost always I find an example I can use. For example:

String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", DateTime.Now);          // "09/05/2012"

But I don't have any clue how it works and which classes support these 'magic' additional strings.

So my questions are:

1. How does String.Format map the additional information MM/dd/yyyy to a string result?
2. Do all Microsoft objects support this feature?
   Is this documented somewhere?
3. Is it possible to do something like this:
   String.Format("{0:MyCustomFormat}", new MyOwnClass())

Answer 1

String.Format matches each of the tokens inside the string ({0} etc) against the corresponding object: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.format.aspx

A format string is optionally provided:

{ index[,alignment][ : formatString] }

If formatString is provided, the corresponding object must implement IFormattable and specifically the ToString method that accepts formatString and returns the corresponding formatted string: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.iformattable.tostring.aspx

An IFormatProvider may also used which can be used to capture basic formatting standards/defaults etc. Examples here and here.

So the answers to your questions in order:

1. It uses the IFormattable interface's ToString() method on the DateTime object and passes that the MM/dd/yyyy format string. It is that implementation which returns the correct string.

2. Any object that implement IFormattable supports this feature. You can even write your own!

3. Yes, see above.