Providing ToString() for my custom object

I have a class with lots of, lots of, lots of properties. In my programm i have to log heavily. Often I have to manually build log strings like

string log = "Current state of object:" + "Property1" + myObj.Property1 + ...

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1. I just thought what if override ToString and provide logging of whatever I need. It is considered goog practice?
2. How can I provide formatter control string? Say I want my ToString to operate in two modes one is complete ouput of all properties and another light version wheere only relevant properties are output

Something like MyObj.ToString("full") and MyObj.ToString("basic")

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Overriding ToString is indeed good practice, so long as you provide good information.

As for having different types of ToString - this is possible, but then you will not be overriding ToString, but providing an overload (that any using class will need to know about).

I would implement the lightweight version as the override and create a VerboseToString function for the full set of properties.

If you have many such objects, you can create a IVerboseString interface with a VerboseToString method and implement it in your objects. This way you can simply use the interface reference in your logging.

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1. That's an excellent practice
2. You could, of course, parametrize the ToString method, but it would no longer mean an implicit conversion from object to string, so you can't write, say, string x = myObject; you will have to call ToString explicitly.

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Why are you overriding ToString but not creating a method that takes Enum as parameter and does what you want inside?

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I can't think of any particular problem associated with it, and myself I often appreciate it for spitting out info in unit tests or trace etc. but I'd take issue with your implementation for verbose and concise outputs - don't use voodoo strings or any kind of arbitrary input - I'd prefer it here id you either took an input argument bool verbose or you explicitly created a ToStringVerbose() method. It's also good practice IMHO for your overridden method to use base.ToString() as part of it's implementation.