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

Not to nitpick but null is a valid value for a String object. Therefore (string) null does not throw any exceptions. Try it for yourselves:

using System;

namespace Test
{
    class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string s = (string) null;
            Console.WriteLine(s);
        }
    }
}