What's the best way to create multi-line string in C#?
I know the following methods:
var result = new StringBuilder().AppendLine("one").AppenLine("two").ToString()
looks too verbose.
var result = @"one
two"
looks ugly and badly formatted.
What about this:
var result = string.Join(Environment.NewLine, new string[]{
"one",
"two"
});
It's a bit painful and possibly an overkill, but it gives the possibility to preserve the lines separation in your code.
To improve things a little, you could use an helper method:
static string MultiLine(params string[] args) {
return string.Join(Environment.NewLine, args);
}
static void Main(string[] args) {
var result = MultiLine(
"one",
"two"
);
}
What about this?
var result = "one\ntwo";
If you're fussy about OS-specific line endings, use Format:
var result = String.Format("one{0}two", Environment.NewLine);
(Well, “fussy” isn’t the right word: when dealing with text files, OS-specific line endings are often desired or even necessary, when dealing with legacy software.)
"Best" is a very very open ended point.
Are you after :
All of those make a big difference as to the "best" way of doing something.
I'd say it depends on what You need...
But to simplify it I would go with:
var s = new StringBuilder();
s.Append("one");
s.Append("two");
s.ToString();
But since we don't know what You need it for. It's pretty difficult to give better hints
You should not define large strings in your source code. You should define it in an external text file:
string s = File.OpenText("myfile.txt").ReadToEnd();
Riffing off of what @codymanix said, you could place the long multiline string in a resource file. This can be easier for certain deployment scenarios since the text "file" will be included in your DLL / EXE.
Ehm, how about:
string s =
"abc\n" +
"def\n" ;
Sometimes you need more than one line. I use Environment.NewLine but I placed it in a method to multiply it. :)
private string newLines(int multiplier)
{
StringBuilder newlines = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < multiplier; i++)
newlines.Append(Environment.NewLine);
return newlines.ToString();
}
