A Utility Apex Class to Convert All Types Into String

If you have been in the programming world long enough, you already know that casting types from one to another specially string representation of the variables is always part the job.

Whether you want to show the data to user or form the variables in different formats, incorporate them in messages, etc.

In this article I will present you one of the Apex classes I have written to help me faster develop Salesforce Applications.

This class helps me in number of ways, for example I do not need to worry about the underlying Apex code to convert a primitive type to string anymore, for all types I just need to call one method "ToString" and it will take care of for me.
Also the methods provide me with formatting capabilities, so I can not only convert to string but also format the string in many ways I need.

Look at the below code and see how the results are:

ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Integer: '+ zConvert.ToString(13434)));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Double: '+ zConvert.ToString(1.23)));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Boolean: '+ zConvert.ToString(true)));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Date: ' + zConvert.ToString(date.newinstance(1960, 2, 17))));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Date time: ' + zConvert.ToString(Datetime.now(),'MMM, dd yyyy')));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'File Size: '+ zConvert.FileSizeToString(6766767)));
 ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.INFO,'Money: '+ zConvert.CurrencyToString(Decimal.valueOf(34.99),'$'))

This is the result of running the above code:



Well, very nice, now let's see how the actual class is developed:
Because I would like to directly call my Coverter's class methods without creating a new instance of the class, I have defined all the methods as "static".

The methods for this class are:

• ToString(Integer)
• ToString(Double)
• ToString(Long)
• ToString(Boolean)
• ToString(Date)
• ToString(Date,format)
  sample: zConvert.ToString(mydate,'MM-dd-yy')
• ToString(Time)
• ToString(Time,format)
  sample: zConvert.ToString(myTime,'hh:mm:ss')
• ToString(Datetime)
• ToString(Datetime,format)
• ToString(Decimal)
• ToString(Decimal, ScientificNotaion)
  ScientificNotaion is a Boolean value and if false is passed then the string will not have scientific notations.
• FileSizeToString(Long)
  Returns values such as "5.5 KB", "8 MB", etc. Parameter passed is in bytes.
• CurrencyToString(Decimal, CurrencyChar)
  CurrencyChar can be "$", "£", etc

public class zConvert
{
 /* The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Sam Arjmandi.
 * Portions created by the Initial Developer are Copyright (C) 2008
 * the Initial Developer. All Rights Reserved. 
 * 
 * This Code is provided "As Is" without warranty of any kind.
 */
 
  public static String ToString(integer Value)
  {
      /* string representation if an Integer value */
      return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Double Value)
  {
    /* string representation if a Double value */
     return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Boolean Value)
  {
     /* string representation if a Boolean value */
     if (Value)
       return 'true';
     else
       return 'false';
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Long Value)
  {
    /* string representation if a Long value */
    return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Date Value)
  {
     /* string representation if a Date value */
     return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Date Value,String format)
  {
    /* string representation if a Date value with formatting */
    Datetime temp = Datetime.newInstance(Value.year(), Value.month(), Value.day());
    return temp.format(format);
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Datetime Value)
  {
     /* string representation if a Datetime value */
     return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Datetime Value,String format)
  {
     /* string representation if a Datetime value with formatting */
     return Value.format(format);
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Time Value)
  {
    /* string representation if a Time value */
    return String.valueOf(Value);
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Time Value, String format)
  {
    /* string representation if a Time value with formating */
    Datetime temp = Datetime.newInstance(1970, 1, 1, Value.hour(), Value.minute(), Value.second());
    return temp.format(format);
  }

  public static String ToString(Decimal Value)
  {
    /* string representation if a Decimal value */
    return Value.format();
  }
 
  public static String ToString(Decimal Value, Boolean ScientificNotation)
  {
    /* string representation if a Decimal value with or without Scientific Notation */
    if (ScientificNotation)
     return Value.format();
    else
     return Value.toPlainString();
  }
 
  public static String FileSizeToString(Long Value)
  {
     /* string representation if a file's size, such as 2 KB, 4.1 MB, etc */
     if (Value < 1024)
       return ToString(Value) + ' Bytes';
     else
     if (Value >= 1024 && Value < (1024*1024))
     {
       //KB
       Decimal kb = Decimal.valueOf(Value);
       kb = kb.divide(1024,2);
       return ToString(kb) + ' KB';
     }
     else
     if (Value >= (1024*1024) && Value < (1024*1024*1024))
     {
       //MB
       Decimal mb = Decimal.valueOf(Value);
       mb = mb.divide((1024*1024),2);
       return ToString(mb) + ' MB';
     }
     else
     {
       //GB
       Decimal gb = Decimal.valueOf(Value);
       gb = gb.divide((1024*1024*1024),2);
      
       return ToString(gb) + ' GB';
     }
    
  }
 
  public static String CurrencyToString(Decimal Value, String CurrencyChar)
  {
     return CurrencyChar + ToString(Value);
  }
 
}