ToString method when using .Dump

bjornbsmith

Hi,

Would it be possible to get a feature implemented in linqpad, where linqpad does not call .ToString() on the objects being dumped.

The reason for this that if you have implemented a ToString() method on a class you don't neccessary want it to be used when calling .Dump().

Example:
----------------------------------------------------
void Main()
{

var c = new ClassWithToString();

c.Dump();

var c2 = new ClassWithoutToString();
c2.Dump();

}

public class ClassWithoutToString
{
public int MyProperty { get; set; }
public int MyProperty2 { get; set; }
public int MyProperty3 { get; set; }

}

public class ClassWithToString : ClassWithoutToString
{
public override string ToString()
{
return $@{MyProperty},
{MyProperty},
{MyProperty}";
}

}
----------------------------------------------------

In this example the result for ClassWithToString in the dump window looks silly, since Dump calls ToString() as part of dumping.

Where for the ClassWithoutToString looks as "expected" - where it just uses the name of the class.

Thanks in advance

NetMage

You could customize Dump with ToDump in MyExtensions to avoid ToString:

static object ToDump(object obj) {
        if (obj.GetType().GetMethod("ToString") != null)
              return Util.ToExpando(obj);
        else
              return obj;
}

Though you may want to restrict it to your own types.

Also, you could add ToDump to your own classes:

https://linqpad.net/CustomizingDump.aspx