VS2008 intellisense hiding an extension method.

[Frank Rizzo]

How come VS2008 does not show built-in extension methods for the string
class? Like ToList() method, for instance.

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Frank Rizzo <no...@none.net> wrote:
> How come VS2008 does not show built-in extension methods for the string
> class? Like ToList() method, for instance.

Have you got a using directive for System.Linq?

--
Jon Skeet - <sk...@pobox.com>
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Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
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[Frank Rizzo]

Jon Skeet [C# MVP] wrote:
> Frank Rizzo <no...@none.net> wrote:
>> How come VS2008 does not show built-in extension methods for the string
>> class? Like ToList() method, for instance.
>
> Have you got a using directive for System.Linq?

Yep.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string s = "123,323,4,111";
List<char> lst = s.ToList();
}
}
}

[Chris Dunaway]

On May 14, 5:22 pm, Frank Rizzo <n...@none.net> wrote:
> Jon Skeet [C# MVP] wrote:
>

I can confirm the issue.

Is it because ToList is not an extension method for type string but of
IEnumerable<T>? That's the only reason I can think of.

Chris

[Marc Gravell]

My assumption is that they hard-coded the IDE to skip it to avoid
confusion... not many people thing of strings as enumerable objects...

But the compiler will accept it - and IMO it makes things clearer.

Marc

[Frank Rizzo]

Anyone willing to install the SP1 beta and try it?

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Frank Rizzo <no...@none.net> wrote:
> Marc Gravell wrote:
> > My assumption is that they hard-coded the IDE to skip it to avoid
> > confusion... not many people thing of strings as enumerable objects...
> >
> > But the compiler will accept it - and IMO it makes things clearer.
>

> Anyone willing to install the SP1 beta and try it?

I'd expect it to behave the same way - it sounds unlikely that it's a
bug, and much more likely that it's a feature as Marc suggests. It's
quite rare that you actually want to treat a string as an
IEnumerable<char> in my experience.

[Marc Gravell]

>> Anyone willing to install the SP1 beta and try it?

It is identical on SP1 beta.

Which by the way is really, really good (IMO). The IDE feels much more
responsive; warnings / errors appear immeditely, for example.

Marc

[José Joye]

I guess you are right.

I'm currently reading "LINQ in Action".
In chapter 4.2.1, it is stated that:
"The extension methods for the System.String are specifically excluded [from
intelliSense] because it is seen as highly unusual to treat a string object
as an IEnumerable<char>."

- José

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk...@pobox.com> a écrit dans le message de
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