digitalMoto.net

Description:
I need to link an list of (string) items into a sentence at runtime. Here’s a short and simple method to handle the commas and ampersand.

Code:

static string JoinPhrases(List phrases)
{
	StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();
	for(int i = 0, j = 1; i < phrases.Count ; i++, j++)
	{
		str.Append(phrases[i]);
		if ( j + 1 < phrases.Count )
			str.Append(", ");
		else if ( j + 1 == phrases.Count )
			str.Append(" & ");
		else if ( j == phrases.Count )
			str.Append(".");
	}

	return str.ToString();
}

Usage:

List only = new List { "Solo" };
List boolean = new List { "True", "False" };
List numbers = new List { "One", "Two", "Three" };
List names = new List { "Fred", "Barney", "Wilma", "Betty" };
List months = new List { "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" };

Console.WriteLine("Join Only:" + Environment.NewLine + JoinPhrases(only) + Environment.NewLine);
Console.WriteLine("Join Boolean:" + Environment.NewLine + JoinPhrases(boolean) + Environment.NewLine);
Console.WriteLine("Join Names:" + Environment.NewLine + JoinPhrases(names) + Environment.NewLine);
Console.WriteLine("Join Numbers:" + Environment.NewLine + JoinPhrases(numbers) + Environment.NewLine);
Console.WriteLine("Join Months:" + Environment.NewLine + JoinPhrases(months) + Environment.NewLine);
Console.ReadLine();

Notes:
Looking at this code, I have to wonder if there is a way to oneline it with a LINQ query. Hmm...