ToDelimitedString Extension Method

This has probably been done before, but I thought I would post my implementation.

Take a given generic list (or something that implements IEnumerable, and convert it to a delimited string.

First, declare this delegate somewhere:

   1: public delegate string StringValueDelegate<T>(T obj);

 

Next, in a static class, (I have a class called GeneralExtensions for just this sort of thing), add this code.

   1: public static string ToDelimitedString<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, string delimiter, StringValueDelegate<T> action)

   2: {

   3:     var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

   4:     foreach (var t in list)

   5:     {

   6:         sb.Append(action.Invoke(t));

   7:         sb.Append( delimiter );

   8:     }

   9:     sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1);

  10:  

  11:     return sb.ToString();

  12: }

Now if I have a customer class with a FirstName and LastName properties, like this:

   1: public class Customer

   2: {

   3:    public string Id { get; set; }

   4:    public string FirstName { get; set; }

   5:    public string LastName { get; set; }

   6: }

And I have a list of them, and want to convert them to a coma delimited list, I would do it like this:

   1: var list = new List<Customer>();

   2: list.Add(new Customer { FirstName="Tom", LastName="Bin" });

   3: list.Add(new Customer { FirstName="John", LastName"Doe" });

   4:  

   5: string result = list.ToDelimitedString(",", c => c.FirstName + " " + c.LastName);

The result will look like this: "Tom Bin, John Doe"