Output class instance variables

Question

So I am learning how instances work and how to set them and such and I am wondering if I can output the variables of an instance without to output them separately.

Ex//

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Person Ryan = new Person();
        Ryan.Age = 16;
        Ryan.Name = "Rynoh97";
    }
}
class Person
{
    public int Age = 0;
    public string Name = "";
} 

Now to output my age I need to do Console.WriteLine(Ryan.Age); and for my name I need Ryan.Name but is there a way to output them both at the same time without making something complex.

I've tried Ryan.ToString() but I get the location of the class for Person.

Any advice?

Answer 1

You can override ToString in the Person class and make it output however you want it to when you call ToString.

There's an example here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173154.aspx

Answer 2

Apart from overriding ToString, you can also use String.Format:

string personDescription = String.Format("Name: {0}, Age: {1}", Ryan.Age, Ryan.Name);
Console.WriteLine(personDescription);

Console.WriteLine even comes with an overload to do this for you:

Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}, Age: {1}", Ryan.Age, Ryan.Name);

.ToString is generally fine, but you only get one override. If you need to display a "Person" multiple ways, this method is a bit more flexible. On the other hand, overriding ToString() becomes very useful when trying to display an object in something like a ListBox.

Answer 3

You can override the toString method to make it display whatever you want. Something like this.

public override string ToString()
    {
        return "Name: " + Name + " Age: " + Age;
    }

Then whenever you call the Ryan.toString() method, this will be displayed instead. Hope this helps.