Almost daily I come across code of the following form:
string x = "foo" + (someTest ? "bar" : "");
Surely there must be a nicer way to succinctly append a string only if some value is true?
This:
string x = "foo";
if (someTest)
x += "bar";
does not satisfy my appetite, because I often want to use the string directly (e.g. as a function argument), without storing it in a variable.
What about an Extension Method?
string x = "foo".AppendIf(someTest, "bar");
public static string AppendIf(this string value, bool expression, string append)
{
return expression
? value + append;
: value;
}
"foo".AppendIf("bar", someTest); +1
Why not write your own extension method to do this?
public static string AppendIf(this string value, string toAppend, bool condition)
{
return condition ? String.Format("{0}{1}", value, toAppend) : value;
}
use extensions
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string AppendIf(this string s, bool condition, string append)
{
return condition ? s + append : s;
}
}
string x = "Foo";
x.AppendIf(someTest, "bar");
// or even
string y = "Foo".AppendIf(someTest, "bar");
Assuming that the string literals could also be variables:
if there is I have yet to find one.
I think the two examples you have are the best.
The only objection is that if you need to conditionally add many strings using the second solution with a stringbuilder instead of concatenation should be a better solution considering performance, readability and maintainability.
Deep nested ? : constructs can be very hard to follow, especially if there are multiple forks.
How about just:
string x = someTest ? "foobar" : "foo";
