Meaningful ToString() is an extremely lightweight .NET class library that helps describe your instances in a more meaningful way.

The default object.ToString() isn't very useful when debugging or logging. Meaningful ToString() creates a string that looks something like:

"Employee (Id = 13298279, Title = Head of Sales, FirstName = Fred, LastName = Smith, Emails = System.String[], Manager = Employee (Id = 13298278, Title = Managing Director, FirstName = Joe, LastName = Bloggs, Emails = System.String[], Manager = null))"

And this is all that Meaningful ToString() does!

Meaningful ToString() is a .NET Standard 1.0 library, and can be used in the following .NET environments:

• dotnet Core (CoreCLR) projects (versions 1 and up);
• full-fat .NET framework, v4.5 and beyond

1. Include the NuGet package:

   Install-Package Meridian.MeaningfulToString

2. Alter your class to inherit from Meridian.MeaningfulToString.MeaningfulBase

   For example:

   public class Employee : Meridian.MeaningfulToString.MeaningfulBase
   {
     public int Id
     {
       get;
       set;
     }
     
     // TODO: ... the rest of your class implementation here ...
   }
   

   • Note 1: You can have multiple base classes - just as long as ultimately, the class you want meaningful values for ToString() inherits from MeaningfulBase.
   • Note 2: This is actually not 100% required; this is just the quick start. If you'd rather not inherit all your classes from this base class, see below section "Without Inheriting from MeaningfulBase".

3. That's it! Start debugging/logging!

You don't have to inherit from MeaningfulBase if you don't want to. Simply override your class' implementation of ToString(), and call the object extension method MeaningfulToString():

public override string ToString()
{
    return this.MeaningfulToString();
}

As with all extension methods, just remember to make sure to include the Meridian.MeaningfulToString namespace in your usings:

using Meridian.MeaningfulToString;