Question

I have the following class as a DataSource for a ListBox:

class SeparatorChars
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Text to describe character
    /// </summary>
    public string Text { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Char value of the character
    /// </summary>
    public char Value { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Represent object as string
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>String representing object</returns>
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Text + " '" + Value + "'";
    }
}

The problem is, this by default will use the Value just as a regular character added to a string, for example if I define this class for Tab like this:

var TabSeparator = new SeparatorChars {Text = "Tab", Value = '\t'}

The string representation will be:

Tab '     '

But I need it to be

Tab '\t'

How to do this?!

Answer 1

Admittedly ripped mostly from this post and untested.

public override string ToString()
{
    return ToLiteral(Text + " '" + Value + "'");
}

private string ToLiteral(string input)
{
    var writer = new StringWriter();
    CSharpCodeProvider provider = new CSharpCodeProvider();
    provider.GenerateCodeFromExpression(new CodePrimitiveExpression(input), writer, null);
    return writer.ToString();
}