Is there any built-in way to convert an integer to a string (of any base) in C#?

Question

Convert.ToString() only allows base values of 2, 8, 10, and 16 for some odd reason; is there some obscure way of providing any base between 2 and 16?

Answer 1

string foo = Convert.ToString(myint,base);

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14kwkz77.aspx

EDIT: My bad, this will throw an argument exception unless you pass in the specified bases (2, 8, 10, and 16)

Your probably SOL if you want to use a different base (but why???).

Answer 2

You could give http://www.codeproject.com/KB/macros/Convert.aspx a try.

Answer 3

You could try the following:

http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/938-Conversion-Decimal-number-any-Base-vice.aspx

This at least gives the impression that you could have any base (from 2->16). Although Im a little confused as to why you would want to !

Answer 4

They probably did it to support negative numbers, since 2's compliment doesn't make sense in base 3. Also to eliminate someone typing a 7 instead of an 8, since the uses for arbitrary bases are few (But not non-existent).

Here is an example method that can do arbitrary base conversions. You can use it if you like, no restrictions.

string ConvertToBase(int value, int toBase)
{
     if (toBase < 2 || toBase > 36) throw new ArgumentException("toBase");
     if (value < 0) throw new ArgumentException("value");

     if (value == 0) return "0"; //0 would skip while loop

     string AlphaCodes = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

     string retVal = "";

     while (value > 0)
     {
          retVal = AlphaCodes[value % toBase] + retVal;
          value /= toBase;
     }

     return retVal;
}

Untested, but you should be able to figure it out from here.

Answer 5

//untested  -- public domain
// if you do a lot of conversions, using StringBuilder will be 
// much, much more efficient with memory and time than using string
// alone.

string toStringWithBase(int number, int base)
    { 
    if(0==number) //handle corner case
        return "0";
    if(base < 2)
        return "ERROR:  Base less than 2";

    StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder(); 

    bool negative = (number < 0) ? true : false;
    if(negative)
        {
        number=-number;
        buffer.Append('-');
        }

    int digits=0;
    int factor=1;

    int runningTotal=number;
    while(number > 0)
       {
       number = number/base;
       digits++;
       factor*=base;
       }
    factor = factor/base;

    while(factor >= 1)
       {
       int remainder = (number/factor) % base;

       Char out = '0'+remainder;
       if(remainder > 9)
           out = 'A' + remainder - 10;
       buffer.Append(out);
       factor = factor/base;
       }

    return buffer.ToString
    }

Answer 6

Sorry, I'm not answering your question but... The choice of bases is not arbitary. You pc is constantly converting from base 2 (it's internal binary system) to the human readable base 10. Base 8 and 16 are very easy to convert to and from base 2 and are often used so a computer AND a human can read the value (e.g. GUIDs)