Convert a String to a List of Chars in C#

This post will discuss how to convert a String to a List of characters in C#.

1. Using `List.AddRange()` Method

A simple solution is to use the List.AddRange() method to add all characters of a string to the end of an “existing” list. To get a List<char>, do like:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string str = "ABCDE";

List<char> chars = new List<char>();

chars.AddRange(str);

Console.WriteLine(String.Join(", ", chars)); // A, B, C, D, E

}

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If you need a List<string> instead to store the characters, convert each character to a string first:

using System;

using System.Linq;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string str = "ABCDE";

List<string> chars = new List<string>();

chars.AddRange(str.Select(c => c.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(String.Join(", ", chars)); // A, B, C, D, E

}

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2. Using List Constructor

Alternatively, you can use the List constructor to initialize a new instance of the List<char> class with characters of a string. You can simply pass a string to the list constructor, as the following example illustrates:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string str = "ABCDE";

List<char> chars = new List<char>(str);

Console.WriteLine(String.Join(", ", chars)); // A, B, C, D, E

}

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If you want a list of strings, then you would use a List<string> rather than List<char>. To get a List<string>, transform each character to a string first:

using System;

using System.Linq;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string str = "ABCDE";

List<string> chars = new List<string>(str.Select(c => c.ToString()));

Console.WriteLine(String.Join(", ", chars)); // A, B, C, D, E

}

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3. Using `Enumerable.ToList()` Method

The Enumerable.ToList() method creates a List<T> from an IEnumerable<T>. It can be used to get a list of characters from a string, as follows:

using System;

using System.Linq;

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

string str = "ABCDE";

List<char> chars = str.ToList();

Console.WriteLine(String.Join(", ", chars)); // A, B, C, D, E

}

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That’s all about converting a String to a List of characters in C#.

Convert a String to a List of Chars in C#

1. Using List.AddRange() Method

2. Using List Constructor

3. Using Enumerable.ToList() Method

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1. Using `List.AddRange()` Method

3. Using `Enumerable.ToList()` Method