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
– Daniel Earwicker, Commented Mar 9, 2010 at 18:22

Nick Craver · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:28:03Z

19

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 9, 2010 at 18:28

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:20

Nick Craver

631k138 gold badges1.3k silver badges1.2k bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Nick Craver Over a year ago

@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 Over a year ago

@Danny - You were right, it's definitely a valid point and someone may come across this trying to do just that later on.

CodeMonkey1313 Over a year ago

wouldn't it be easier and more efficient to use the Pad method mentioned below?

Chris McCall · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:20:45Z

8

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

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:20

Chris McCall

10.4k9 gold badges51 silver badges84 bronze badges

4 Comments

Beska Over a year ago

Not the "slickest" answer, but gets a +1 for straightforwardness.

Joe Pitz Over a year ago

It is the slickest and the correct answer, he is using the stringbuilder class, strings are immutable. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.stringbuilder.aspx

Daniel Earwicker Over a year ago

@Joe - yep, strings are immutable, what of it?

Joe Pitz Over a year ago

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

Codism · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:19:10Z

6

new string(' ', NumberOfTabs )

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:19

Codism

6,2846 gold badges32 silver badges29 bronze badges

1 Comment

Adam Robinson Over a year ago

Going on the OP's question, it seems like it should be NumberOfTabs * 4

ANeves · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:22:10Z

4

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

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:22

ANeves

6,4033 gold badges43 silver badges64 bronze badges

Comments

Joe Pitz · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:29:44Z

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 9, 2010 at 18:29

Joe Pitz

2,4443 gold badges25 silver badges30 bronze badges

3 Comments

Joe Pitz Over a year ago

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.

Mike Polen Over a year ago

For small number of concatenations, StringBuilder has more overhead than it saves.

Joe Pitz Over a year ago

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.

Ben Griswold · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:22:15Z

2

You could use something like this:

String.Empty.PadRight(NumberOfTabs)

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:22

Ben Griswold

18.5k14 gold badges60 silver badges60 bronze badges

Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:01:12Z

2

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, 2017 at 12:01

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:23

Danny T.

1,14010 silver badges23 bronze badges

Comments

Tom Brothers · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:24:59Z

2

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

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:24

Tom Brothers

6,0071 gold badge24 silver badges17 bronze badges

Comments

Judah Gabriel Himango · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:58:08Z

2

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 9, 2010 at 18:58

Judah Gabriel Himango

60.2k39 gold badges162 silver badges217 bronze badges

Comments

AndiDog · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-09 18:22:33Z

0

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;

answered Mar 9, 2010 at 18:22

AndiDog

70.6k21 gold badges166 silver badges208 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How can I create a string in C# programmatically?

10 Answers 10

3 Comments

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

10 Answers 10

3 Comments

4 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related