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());
    }
}