CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwinformscmdoutput
Sergey Dudkin
Sergey Dudkin

Reputation: 189

Form Application - Output to Command Prompt without creation of additional consoles

I have sort of strange question.

I've created a form application, with menus, options, buttons etc. Also I've implemented possibility to turn on and off some options using arguments and launching application from Command Prompt. Now I would like to implement reaction to additional "help" argument, I want it to show information about all the possible arguments and some examples.

Is there way to show some output to console I am currently running from, without creating additional console? Or it would be just easier just to show new MessageBox with description of all the arguments?

Thank you!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 123

Answers (2)

Chase
Chase

Reputation: 36

This is what I use to add the console to applications when I've needed it:

#region Console support
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Kernel32")]
public static extern void AllocConsole();

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Kernel32")]
public static extern void FreeConsole();
#endregion

When we need to turn it on, we can call AllocConsole(), and likewise FreeConsole() when we want to turn it back off.

As well, I created/use the following to write to the console with color:

/// <summary>
/// Writes to the Console. Does not terminate line, subsequent write is on right of same line.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="color">The color that you want to write to the line with.</param>
/// <param name="text">The text that you want to write to the console.</param>
public static void ColoredConsoleWrite(ConsoleColor color, string text)
{
    ConsoleColor originalColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
    Console.ForegroundColor = color;
    Console.Write(text);
    Console.ForegroundColor = originalColor;
}

/// <summary>
/// Writes to the Console. Terminates line, subsequent write goes to new line.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="color">The color that you want to write to the line with.</param>
/// <param name="text">The text that you want to write to the console.</param>
public static void ColoredConsoleWriteLine(ConsoleColor color, string text)
{
    ConsoleColor originalColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
    Console.ForegroundColor = color;
    Console.WriteLine(text);
    Console.ForegroundColor = originalColor;
}

Example usage:

#region User Check
Console.Write("User: {0} ... ", Environment.UserName);
if (validUser(Environment.UserName).Equals(false))
{
    ColoredConsoleWrite(ConsoleColor.Red, "BAD!");
    Console.WriteLine(" - Making like a tree, and getting out of here!");
    Environment.Exit(0);
}
ColoredConsoleWrite(ConsoleColor.Green, "GOOD!"); Console.WriteLine(" - Continue on!");
#endregion

Valid user output with "GOOD!" being in Green text:

User: Chase.Ring ... GOOD! - Continue on!

Invalid user output with "BAD!" being in Red text:

User: Not.Chase.Ring ... BAD! - Making like a tree, and getting out of here!

Upvotes: 1

Kamil
Kamil

Reputation: 13931

If there is no important reason why you would use console - I would just use MessageBox.

Mixing console and windows forms is not good idea.

If you really have to do it - there is AttachConsole function in kernel32.dll. You can use it like this:

Program.cs file:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;


namespace Test
{
    static class Program
    {
        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        static extern bool AttachConsole(int dwProcessId);
        private const int ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS = -1;

        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS);
            Console.WriteLine("This will show on console.");

            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

            Application.Run(new Form1());
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 1

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