Question

Is there any way to format a string by name rather than position in C#?

In python, I can do something like this example (shamelessly stolen from here):

>>> print '%(language)s has %(#)03d quote types.' % \       {'language': 'Python', '#': 2} Python has 002 quote types. 

Is there any way to do this in C#? Say for instance:

String.Format('{some_variable}: {some_other_variable}', ...); 

Being able to do this using a variable name would be nice, but a dictionary is acceptable too.

Answer 1

There is no built-in method for handling this.

Here’s one method

string myString = "{foo} is {bar} and {yadi} is {yada}".Inject(o); 

Here’s another

Status.Text = "{UserName} last logged in at {LastLoginDate}".FormatWith(user); 

A third improved method partially based on the two above, from Phil Haack

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Update: This is now built-in as of C# 6 (released in 2015).

String Interpolation

$"{some_variable}: {some_other_variable}"