#971 – Reading a Line of Input from the Console

For testing purposes, you may create a simple console application that allows writing to and reading from a console window.

The Console.ReadLine method reads the next line’s worth of characters, storing the result in a string.  The user can enter some text and then press the Enter key.  When the user presses Enter, whatever they typed on that line is stored in a variable of type string.

            while (true)
            {
                Console.Write(": ");
                string nextLine = Console.ReadLine();

                Console.WriteLine("[{0}]", nextLine);
            }

You can also use the Console.Read method to read a single character. The characters are not read until the user presses Enter.

In the example below, the user types the letters a, and b and then presses Enter.  The two calls to Console.Read are then executed, storing the ASCII values of the characters entered.

            int char1 = Console.Read();
            int char2 = Console.Read();

            Console.Write("{0} {1}",
                char1.ToString(),
                char2.ToString());