Why do the overloads of String.Format exist?
- by GiddyUpHorsey
I was using Reflector to look at the implementation of String.Format and had always been under the impression that the overloads of String.Format that took 1, 2 & 3 arguments were optimized versions of the method that takes an object array. However, what I found was that internally they create an object array and then call a method that takes an object array.
1 arg
public static string Format(string format, object arg0)
{
if (format == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("format");
}
return Format(null, format, new object[] { arg0 });
}
2 args
public static string Format(string format, object arg0, object arg1)
{
if (format == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("format");
}
return Format(null, format, new object[] { arg0, arg1 });
}
3 args
public static string Format(string format, object arg0, object arg1, object arg2)
{
if (format == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("format");
}
return Format(null, format, new object[] { arg0, arg1, arg2 });
}
Object array
public static string Format(string format, params object[] args)
{
if ((format == null) || (args == null))
{
throw new ArgumentNullException((format == null) ? "format" : "args");
}
return Format(null, format, args);
}
Internally they all end up using the same code and so using the 1, 2 & 3 argument versions are no faster than the object array version.
So my question is - why do they exist?
When you use the object array version with a comma separated list of values, the compiler automatically converts the arguments into an object array because of the params/ParamArray keyword which is essentially what the 1, 2 & 3 versions do, so they seem redundant. Why did the BCL designers add these overloads?
