Question

How do I apply a mask to a string aiming to format the output text in the following fashion (at most 2 leading zeros):

int a = 1, b = 10, c = 100;
string aF = LeadingZeroFormat(a), bF = LeadingZeroFormat(b), cF = LeadingZeroFormat(c);
Console.Writeline("{0}, {1}, {2}", aF, bF, cF); // "001, 010, 100" 

What is the most elegant solution?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use Int32.ToString(“000”) to format an integer in this manner. For details, see Custom Numeric Format Strings and Int32.ToString:

string one = a.ToString("000"); // 001
string two = b.ToString("000"); // 010