How can I create a string in C# programmatically?

Question

I have a string, and I want to add a number of spaces to the beginning of that string based on an int variable.
I want to do something like this:

int NumberOfTabs = 2;
string line = "my line";
string line = String.Format("{0}{1}", "    " * NumberOfTabs, line);

...and now line would have 8 spaces

What is the easiest way to do this?

Although not the question you asked, string concatenation with `+` is clearer, simpler and (if it matters) faster than `string.Format` for simple cases, i.e. `new string(' ', NumberOfTabs) + line` — Daniel Earwicker, Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

Nick Craver · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09T18:28:03.657

18

You can use the String(char, Int32) constructor like this:

string line = String.Format("{0}{1}", new String(' ', NumberofTabs * 4), line);

or a bit more efficient:

string line = String.Concat(new String(' ', NumberofTabs * 4), line);

or, a bit more concise :)

string line = new String(' ', NumberofTabs * 4).Concat(line);

A comment made a good point, if you want to actually have the tab character, just change the ' ' to '\t' and take out the * 4 like this:

string line = String.Concat(new String('\t', NumberofTabs), line);

edited Mar 09 '10 at 18:28

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:20

Nick Craver

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@Danny - That's what the original posted had, maybe code indentation? In any case you can do `'\t'` instead of `' '` and take off the `* 4` if want true tabs. – Nick Craver Mar 09 '10 at 18:25
@Danny - You were right, it's definitely a valid point and someone may come across this trying to do just that later on. – Nick Craver Mar 09 '10 at 18:28
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wouldn't it be easier and more efficient to use the Pad method mentioned below? – CodeMonkey1313 Mar 09 '10 at 18:33

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:20

8

int i=8;
System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.Append(" ", i);

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:20

Chris McCall

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Not the "slickest" answer, but gets a +1 for straightforwardness. – Beska Mar 09 '10 at 18:25
It is the slickest and the correct answer, he is using the stringbuilder class, strings are immutable. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.stringbuilder.aspx – Joe Pitz Mar 09 '10 at 18:31
@Joe - yep, strings are immutable, what of it? – Daniel Earwicker Mar 09 '10 at 19:08
All of the above examples are using string variables, Every time you concat you create a new string. According to Microsoft the best way to handle this is using stringbuilder class – Joe Pitz Mar 09 '10 at 19:19

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:19

6

new string(' ', NumberOfTabs )

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:19

Codism

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Going on the OP's question, it seems like it should be `NumberOfTabs * 4` – Adam Robinson Mar 09 '10 at 18:20

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

4

str = str.PadLeft(str.Length+tabs*4);

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

ANeves

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:29

3

In C# strings are immutable. You should really use the stringbuilder class.

Code examples are listed in the link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.stringbuilder.aspx

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:29

Joe Pitz

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Yes it does, every time you concat a string you create a new un-needed string. Use of stringbuilder prevents this and is the recommended way to increase the length of the string, which the op is trying to perform. – Joe Pitz Mar 09 '10 at 19:21
For small number of concatenations, StringBuilder has more overhead than it saves. – Mike Polen Mar 09 '10 at 19:35
If you are just looking at concating strings, yes. But if you look at garage collection, maybe not. Garbage collection is very expensive. More extra strings, means more garbage collection. – Joe Pitz Mar 09 '10 at 20:00

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

2

You could use something like this:

String.Empty.PadRight(NumberOfTabs)

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

Ben Griswold

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score 2 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

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You can add tabs at the beginning of your text like this:

line.PadLeft(NumberOfTabs, '\t');

\t being the escape character for "tab" (Inserting a tab character into text using C#)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

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answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:23

Danny T.

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:24

2

int NumberOfTabs = 2;
string line = "my line";
string results = line.PadLeft(line.Length + NumberOfTabs, ' ');

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:24

Tom Brothers

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:58

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Not the best answer by any measure, but here's an amusing one, a little LINQ one-liner:

var result = new string(Enumerable.Repeat(' ', count).Concat("my line").ToArray());

answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:58

Judah Gabriel Himango

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 18:22

You can create a new string containing a custom number of spaces. Unfortunately, there's no string multiplication like in Python (" " * 2). But you can multiply the number of spaces by 4 to get "tabs":

int numberOfTabs = 2;
string line = "my line";
string whitespaces = new string(' ', numberOfTabs * 4);
string s = whitespaces + line;

How can I create a string in C# programmatically?

10 Answers10