I usually try to comment and log a lot when I write a program, I never regret it. But in order to write information that is actually meaningful you need to get the runtime context, like the current value of some variables or what exception has been thrown. Furthermore you will want to facilitate comprehension for the reader, if you work with hexadecimal values, you will also want to show your value as hexadecimal and spare the reader the conversion. Here are some of the most useful functions for formatting your strings and allowing you to easily write messages that matter and that are comprehensive.
Formatting strings
$ – string interpolation
String Interpolation is available since C# 6, with it you can compose a string with other variables and make your code actually fairly readable for people.
int value = 255;
Console.WriteLine($"The hexadecimal value of {value} is 0x{value.ToString("X")}");
The hexadecimal value of 255 is 0xFF
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/tokens/interpolated
@ – verbatim string literal
string filename1 = @"C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll";
string filename2 = "C:\\Windows\\System32\\shell32.dll";
Console.WriteLine(filename1);
Console.WriteLine(filename2);
C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll
C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/tokens/verbatim
Formatting numbers
The ToString() method accepts a string as Parameter, it consist of a letter, big or small and optionally an associated number, which sets how many letters the resulting string should at least have.
X – hexadecimal
int intValue = 255;
// hexadecimal format
Console.WriteLine(intValue.ToString("x"));
Console.WriteLine(intValue.ToString("X4"));
ff
00FF
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/standard-numeric-format-strings
F – fixed-point
int intValue = 255;
double doubleValue = 1234.5678;
// fixed-point format
Console.WriteLine(intValue.ToString("F"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("F"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("F3"));
255.00
1234.56
1234.567
0 – zero placeholder
double doubleValue = 1234.5678;
// 0 placeholder
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("000"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("00000.00"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("00000.00000"));
1235
01234,57
01234,56780
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/custom-numeric-format-strings
# – digit placeholder
double doubleValue = 1234.5678;
// digit placeholder
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("###"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("#####.##"));
Console.WriteLine(doubleValue.ToString("#####.#####"));
1235
1234,57
1234,5678
Convert – string to int
// base 10 string
string intValue = "64";
Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToInt32(intValue));
// base 16 string
string hexValueAsString = "0x64";
Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToInt32(hexValueAsString, 16));
64
100
BitConverter – int to byte array
int value = 511;
byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(value);
Console.WriteLine(BitConverter.ToString(byteArray));
127-01-00-00
string.Join() – Array to string
int[] values = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 255 };
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", values));
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", values.Select(b => b.ToString("X2"))));
1,2,3,4,255
01,02,03,04,FF
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