String casts in .NET

Question

Why is there so may ways to convert to a string in .net? The ways I have seen are .ToString, Convert.ToString() and (string). What is the Difference.

Answer 1

ToString() is a method of object, and it will always work on a non-null reference, so you'll get something, but whether that something is what you want, is a different story.

Convert.ToString() will yield the same result in most cases, but isn't as flexible as Object.ToString() as you can't pass custom formatting rules.

(string) will cast your object to string, and if it isn't a string then you'll get an InvalidCastException().