CStr

This VB.NET function converts literals into Strings—it handles Integer, Boolean and Char. It changes these types into their String representations.

In VB.NET, we can call ToString, which is more like how things work in the C# language. Often, using ToString is preferred as it is more standard.

Example

This program calls the CStr function and passes 5 as the argument. It shows that you can convert the Boolean True into the String "True" by using the CStr function.

Finally It converts the Char (a) into the String "a". It uses the CStr function for this as well.

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        ' Convert integer to string.
        Dim str As String = CStr(5)
        If str = "5" Then
            Console.WriteLine(str)
        End If

        ' Convert bool to string.
        str = CStr(True)
        If str = "True" Then
            Console.WriteLine(str)
        End If

        ' Convert char to string.
        str = CStr("a"c)
        If str = "a" Then
            Console.WriteLine(str)
        End If
    End Sub
End Module5
True
a

Internals

How does the .NET Framework implement the CStr function? It is compiled CStr into the Conversions.ToString function. This eventually returns the correct String value.

Note The CStr("a"c) call above is optimized out by the Visual Basic .NET compiler for better performance.

The CStr function provides a way to effectively convert value types into String types. It is useful—you cannot call ToString on literals in the VB.NET environment.