Program your own ToString method with VB.NET

Every built-in type in VB.NET environment has a ToString method which returns a textual representation of the value. ToString method is declared to System.Object as

Public Overridable Function ToString() As String

and very class that inherits from System.Object inherits ToString method too. Since ToString method is declared as Overridable, inherited classes typically override this base method. Besides inheriting ToString method it is also overloaded with method that accepts a format string as a parameter. More information about format strings for ToString method can be found in MSDN. Here's a link to Int64.ToString method with format string. The same MSDN page contains also examples for formatting numbers, dates and time. Examples are provided to both VB.NET and C#.

When you write your own classes in VB.NET, there's nothing to prevent that you write your own ToString method too. Here's a simple PersonName class that implements ToString method.

Option Explicit On
Option Strict On
Public Class PersonName

  Private _FirstName As String
  Private _LastName As String

  Public Sub New()
    ' Initialize class
    _FirstName = ""
    _LastName = ""

  End Sub

  Public Sub New(ByVal FirstName As String, ByVal LastName As String)
    ' Initialize class
    _FirstName = FirstName
    _LastName = LastName

  End Sub

  Public Property FirstName() As String
    '
    Get
      Return _FirstName
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      _FirstName = value
    End Set

  End Property

  Public Property LastName() As String
    Get
      Return _LastName
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      _LastName = value
    End Set

  End Property

  Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
    ' Return name as a string
    Dim TempStr As String

    TempStr = ""
    If _FirstName.Length > 0 Then
      TempStr = _FirstName
    End If
    If _LastName.Length > 0 Then
      If TempStr.Length > 0 Then
        ' Add space between names
        TempStr = TempStr & " " & _LastName
      Else
        TempStr = _LastName
      End If
    End If
    Return TempStr

  End Function

  Public Overloads Function ToString(ByVal Format As String) As String
    ' Return name as a string
    ' Format="f", "l", "fl", "lf", "f,l", "l,f"
    Dim TempStr As String

    TempStr = ""
    Select Case Format
      Case "f"
        TempStr = _FirstName
      Case "l"
        TempStr = _LastName
      Case "fl"
        If _FirstName.Length > 0 Then
          TempStr = _FirstName
        End If
        If _LastName.Length > 0 Then
          If TempStr.Length > 0 Then
            ' Add space between names
            TempStr = TempStr & " " & _LastName
          Else
            TempStr = _LastName
          End If
        End If
      Case "lf"
        If _LastName.Length > 0 Then
          TempStr = _LastName
        End If
        If _FirstName.Length > 0 Then
          If TempStr.Length > 0 Then
            ' Add space between names
            TempStr = TempStr & " " & _FirstName
          Else
            TempStr = _FirstName
          End If
        End If
      Case "f,l"
        If _FirstName.Length > 0 Then
          TempStr = _FirstName
        End If
        If _LastName.Length > 0 Then
          If TempStr.Length > 0 Then
            ' Add space between names
            TempStr = TempStr & ", " & _LastName
          Else
            TempStr = _LastName
          End If
        End If
      Case "l,f"
        If _LastName.Length > 0 Then
          TempStr = _LastName
        End If
        If _FirstName.Length > 0 Then
          If TempStr.Length > 0 Then
            ' Add space between names
            TempStr = TempStr & ", " & _FirstName
          Else
            TempStr = _FirstName
          End If
        End If
    End Select
    Return TempStr

  End Function

End Class

The first ToString method has to be declared as Overrides, since the class is inherited from System.Object and the method overrides the method from the base class.

The second ToString method accepts a format string argument and it has to be declared as Overloads, since it overloads our first method. Accepted format strings are "f", "l", "fl", "lf", "f,l" and "l,f" and they affect if either first or the last name is outputted first and how they are separated.

The following example shows, how to test ToString methods and how the output from the our custom ToString method is formatted.

Dim aPersonName As New PersonName("John", "Doe")
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString, _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("f"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("l"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("fl"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("lf"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("f,l"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
MessageBox.Show(aPersonName.ToString("l,f"), _
  "Name", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)

And the resulting output is

John Doe
John
Doe
John Doe
Doe John
John, Doe
Doe, John