Question

I have a weird question. Here it goes –

Let’s consider the below code snippet:

string test ="this is a test string";
Console.WriteLine(test);

I want it to print a different thing – like yup, this is a test string. Actually, I want to see if the string is matching some pattern, and if so I want it printed differently. I want that to be the case only when I am printing it to console, but whenever I am using it elsewhere, it should be the original one.

I was hoping I could write an extension method on String class ( or Object class? ) and make ToString() return as per my needs, but the docs say:

An extension method will never be
called if it has the same signature as
a method defined in the type.

Is there any possibility of doing such a thing? I cannot use a new type. Or maybe trying to make ToString() behave differently is not the way to go. But is there a way to make a particular string print to the console differently but be used in its original form elsewhere?

Answer 1

You could do something like this:

public static class StringExtension
{
    public static void WriteToConsole(this string text)
    {
        string result;
        if (<matches1>)
            result = "111";
        else if (<matches1>)
            result = "222";
        Console.WriteLine(result);
    }
}

And the usage would be:

string test = "this is a test string";
test.WriteToConsole();