CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#console-application
EAzevedo
EAzevedo

Reputation: 791

How Can I change the background color of a text on a Console Application C#

I am writing a small console application in c# and I want to use the arrow keys to navigate through my menu. To make the selected option visible to the user I want to highlight it with a white background and black text but only the word and not the whole line.

I tried to position the cursor at the beginning of the word so only the word would be highlighted but it did not work. Could someone put me on the right direction, please?

for (int i = 0; i < filesArray.Length; i++)
        {
            Console.WriteLine();

            if (i == 0)
            {
                Console.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
                Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black;
                Program.WriteAtTheMiddleOfTheScreen(filesArray[0]);
                Console.ResetColor();
            }
            else
            {

                Program.WriteAtTheMiddleOfTheScreen(filesArray[i]);
            }
        }

        Console.WriteLine();
        Program.WriteAtTheMiddleOfTheScreen("Exit Program");

        Console.SetCursorPosition((Console.WindowWidth/2)-filesArray[0].Length+2, 2);

That is what I want to achieve

That is how it looks like

public static void WriteAtTheMiddleOfTheScreen(string message)
    {
        message = String.Format("{0," + ((Console.WindowWidth / 2) +    (message.Length / 2)) + "}", message);
        Console.WriteLine(message);
    }

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3578

Answers (3)

Mike Nakis
Mike Nakis

Reputation: 61993

The Console class supports two properties called ForegroundColor and BackgroundColor.

See MSDN: System.Console.ForegroundColor and MSDN: System.Console.BackgroundColor

(Hint: using Microsoft Visual Studio, you can place the cursor on Console and hit Ctrl+Space to get a list of all properties offered by Console.)

You can set these properties using members of the System.ConsoleColor enumeration which contains members such as White, Blue, etc.

See MSDN: System.ConsoleColor

So, you set the BackgroundColor property to some color, do your System.Console.Write(), then set BackgroundColor to something else, and so on.

Keep in mind that spaces are painted with the background color, so to prevent areas of the screen from being painted with unwanted background color, refrain from setting the BackgroundColor property to an unwanted value and writing spaces there.

Upvotes: 3

Blue
Blue

Reputation: 310

This will help 

        for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
        {
            Console.WriteLine();
            string Text = "MAP" + i;
            Console.SetCursorPosition((Console.WindowWidth - Text.Length) / 2, Console.CursorTop);
            if (i == 0)
            {
                Console.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
                Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Black;                    
                Console.WriteLine(Text);
                Console.ResetColor();
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine(Text);
            }
        }

See result

Upvotes: 0

Hari Govind
Hari Govind

Reputation: 369

C# Console Color Tutorial This page has all you need to change the color of console application.

    Console.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Blue;
    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
    Console.WriteLine("White on blue.");
    Console.WriteLine("Another line.");

The above code will change the background and foreground color of the console.

Upvotes: 0

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