How to Conditionally Format a String in .Net?

Question

Well, you can simplify it a bit with the conditional operator:

string formatString = items.Count > 0 ? "Items: {0}; Values: {1}" : "Values: {1}";
return string.Format(formatString, itemList, valueList);

Or even include it in the same statement:

return string.Format(items.Count > 0 ? "Items: {0}; Values: {1}" : "Values: {1}",
                     itemList, valueList);

Is that what you’re after? I don’t think you can have a single format string which sometimes includes bits and sometimes it doesn’t.