May 21, 2016
Difference Between ToString() Method and Convert.ToString() Method
In the previous tutorial, we have seen how ToString() method works and how to override it. For built-in types, it works fine but for complex types it will return their type. There is another method which is pretty much similar to ToString() method and that is Convert.ToString(). But there is a one difference between them. Convert.ToString() can easily handle null values and will return an empty string, but ToString() method cannot handle null values and will throw a null reference exception. Example of both ToString() and Convert.ToString() is given below.
using System; using System.Collections; namespace Hello_World { class Customer { } class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Customer C1 = null; try { //Convert.ToString() Method Console.WriteLine("Conver.ToString() Method Returns: {0}", Convert.ToString(C1)); //ToString() Method Console.WriteLine(C1.ToString()); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("ToString() Method Returns: {0}", ex.Message); } } } }