What is the difference between Convert.toString and .toString() method ?

Purushottam Rathore

15y

9.3k

What is the difference between Convert.toString and. ToString() method ?

Convert.toString uses convert class method, which contains different static method to convert one primitive type to another primitive type.

While The ToString method of the Object class converts a type to a string type and it has many overloads.

Puran Mehra

15y

Hi,

This is very common interview question; been discussed many times.

1) .toString() will not handle NULL; in case of NULL values it will raise NullReferenceException

2) Convert.toString() will handle NULL;

Please see http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/architecturegeneral/thread/bf118337-6dbd-4edd-9147-fbbcba7ce6c5 for details.

Maruti Tathe

15y

Just to give an understanding of what the above question means seethe below code.

int i =0;
MessageBox.Show(i.ToString());
MessageBox.Show(Convert.ToString(i));

We can convert the integer "i" using "i.ToString()" or "Convert.ToString" so what’s the difference.

The basic difference between them is "Convert" function handles NULLS while "i.ToString()" does not it will throw a NULL reference exception error. So as good coding practice using "convert" is always safe.

Purushottam Rathore

15y