Sometimes we need to Convert an ArrayList to a comma
delimited string.
For example:
If we have a ArrayList of string value then we usually write
the following code
ArrayList
alist=new ArrayList();
alist.Add("One");
alist.Add("Two");
alist.Add("Three");
string strComma = string.Join(",",
(string[])alist.ToArray(Type.GetType("System.String")));
Console.WriteLine(strComma);
Output :
One, Two, Three
On other hand for type int of ArrayList we need to
write code like:
ArrayList
alist=new ArrayList();
alist.Add(1);
alist.Add(2);
alist.Add(3);
string strComma = string.Join(",",
(int[])alist.ToArray(Type.GetType("System.Int32")));
Console.WriteLine(strComma);
Output:
1,2,3
The difference between the types of list is needed to write
different code. It actually makes it impossible to write a single function for
ALL types of list this way.
But we can handle this if we write a generic method like:
public static string ArrayToString(IList array, string
delimeter)
{
string outputString = "";
for (int i = 0;
i < array.Count; i++)
{
if (array[i] is
IList)
{
outputString += ArrayToString((IList)array[i],
delimeter);
}
else
{
outputString += array[i];
}
if (i != array.Count - 1)
outputString += delimeter;
}
return outputString;
}
We now just call the function by sending the ArrayList
as a array and delimiter string. It doesn’t need to care about the Type of
ArrayList
Example:
ArrayList
alist=new ArrayList();
alist.Add(1);
alist.Add(2);
alist.Add(3);
string strComma
=ArrayToString(alist.ToArray(),",");
Console.WriteLine(strComma);
Output:
1,2,3
