Console Input / Output

Reading and Writing to the Console

Imran Khan
 Table of Contents
 Printing to the Console
 Printing Strings and Numbers
 Reading from the Console

 Reading Characters
 Reading Strings
 Parsing Strings to Numeral Types
 Reading Numeral Types
 Various Examples

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 Printing to the Console
 Console is used to display information in a text
window
 Can display different values:
 Strings
 Numeral types
 All primitive data types
 To print
to the console use the class Console
(System.Console)

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 The Console Class
 Provides methods for console input and output
 Input
 Read(…) – reads a single character
 ReadKey(…) – reads a combination of keys
 ReadLine(…) – reads a single line of characters
 Output
 Write(…) – prints the specified
argument on the console
 WriteLine(…) – prints specified data to the
console and moves to the next line
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 Console.Write(…)
 Printing an integer variable
int a = 15;
...
Console.Write(a); // 15

 Printing more than one variable using a

formatting string
double a = 15.5;
int b = 14;
...
Console.Write("{0} + {1} = {2}", a, b, a + b);
// 15.5 + 14 = 29.5

 Next print operation will start from the same line

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 Console.WriteLine(…)
 Printing a string variable
string str = "Hello C#!";
...
Console.WriteLine(str);

 Printing more than one variable using a

formatting string
string name = "Marry";
int year = 1987;
...
Console.Write("{0} was born in {1}.", name, year);
// Marry was born in 1987.

 Next printing will start from the next line

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 Printing to the Console – Example
static void Main()
{
string name = "Peter";
int age = 18;
string town = "Sofia";

Console.Write("{0} is {1} years old from {2}.",

name, age, town);
// Result: Peter is 18 years old from Sofia.
Console.Write("This is on the same line!");
Console.WriteLine("Next sentence will be" +
" on a new line.");

Console.WriteLine("Bye, bye, {0} from {1}.",

name, town);
}

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 Printing a Menu – Example
double colaPrice = 1.20;
string cola = "Coca Cola";
double fantaPrice = 1.20;
string fanta = "Fanta Dizzy";
double zagorkaPrice = 1.50;
string zagorka = "Zagorka";

Console.WriteLine("Menu:");
Console.WriteLine("1. {0} – {1}",
cola, colaPrice);
Console.WriteLine("2. {0} – {1}",
fanta, fantaPrice);
Console.WriteLine("3. {0} – {1}",
zagorka, zagorkaPrice);
Console.WriteLine("Have a nice day!");

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 Reading from the Console
 We use the console to read information from
the command line
 We can read:

 Characters
 Strings
 Numeral types (after conversion)
 To read from the console we use the methods
Console.Read() and Console.ReadLine()

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 Console.Read()
 Gets a single character from the console (after
[Enter] is pressed)
 Returns a result of type int
 Returns -1 if there aren’t more symbols
 To get the actually read character we
need to cast it to char
int i = Console.Read();
char ch = (char) i; // Cast the int to char

// Gets the code of the entered symbol

Console.WriteLine("The code of '{0}' is {1}.", ch, i);

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 Console.ReadKey()
 Waits until a combination of keys is pressed
 Reads a single character from console or a
combination of keys
 Returns a result of type ConsoleKeyInfo
 KeyChar – holds the entered character
 Modifiers – holds the state of [Ctrl], [Alt], …

ConsoleKeyInfo key = Console.ReadKey();

Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Character entered: " + key.KeyChar);
Console.WriteLine("Special keys: " + key.Modifiers);

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 Console.ReadLine()
 Gets a line of characters
 Returns a string value
 Returns null if the end of the input is reached

Console.Write("Please enter your first name: ");

string firstName = Console.ReadLine();

Console.Write("Please enter your last name: ");

string lastName = Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine("Hello, {0} {1}!",

firstName, lastName);

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 Reading Numeral Types
 Numeral types can not be read directly from the
console
 To read a numeral type do the following:
1. Read a string value
2. Convert (parse) it to the required numeral type
 int.Parse(string) – parses a string to int
string str = Console.ReadLine()
int number = int.Parse(str);

Console.WriteLine("You entered: {0}", number);

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 Converting Strings to Numbers
 Numeral types have a method Parse(…) for
extracting the numeral value from a string
 int.Parse(string) – string  int
 long.Parse(string) – string  long
 float.Parse(string) – string  float
 Causes FormatException in case of error
string s = "123";
int i = int.Parse(s); // i = 123
long l = long.Parse(s); // l = 123L

string invalid = "xxx1845";

int value = int.Parse(invalid); // FormatException
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 Reading Numbers from the
Console – Example
static void Main()
{
int a = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
int b = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

Console.WriteLine("{0} + {1} = {2}",

a, b, a+b);
Console.WriteLine("{0} * {1} = {2}",
a, b, a*b);

float f = float.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
Console.WriteLine("{0} * {1} / {2} = {3}",
a, b, f, a*b/f);
}

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 Converting Strings to
Numbers (2)
 Converting can also be done using the methods of
the Convert class
 Convert.ToInt32(string) – string  int
 Convert.ToSingle(string)– string  float
 Convert.ToInt64(string)– string  long
 Internally uses the parse methods of the numeral
types
string s = "123";
int i = Convert.ToInt32(s); // i = 123
long l = Convert.ToInt64(s); // l = 123L
string invalid = "xxx1845";
int value = Convert.ToInt32(invalid); // FormatException
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 Error Handling when Parsing
 Sometimes we want to handle the errors when
parsing a number
 Two options: use try-catch block or TryParse()
 Parsing with TryParse():
string str = Console.ReadLine();
int number;
if (int.TryParse(str, out number))
{
Console.WriteLine("Valid number: {0}", number);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Invalid number: {0}", str);
}

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 Printing a Letter – Example

Console.Write("Enter person name: ");

string person = Console.ReadLine();

Console.Write("Enter company name: ");

string company = Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine(" Dear {0},", person);

Console.WriteLine("We are pleased to tell you " +
"that {1} has chosen you to take part " +
"in the \"Introduction To Programming\" " +
"course. {1} wishes you good luck!",
person, company);

Console.WriteLine(" Yours,");
Console.WriteLine(" {0}", company);

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 Calculating Area – Example
Console.WriteLine("This program calculates " +
"the area of a rectangle or a triangle");

Console.Write("Enter a and b (for rectangle) " +

" or a and h (for triangle): ");
int a = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
int b = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

Console.Write("Enter 1 for a rectangle or 2 " +

"for a triangle: ");

int choice = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

double area = (double) (a*b) / choice;
Console.WriteLine("The area of your figure " +
" is {0}", area);

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 Summary
 We have discussed the basic
input and output
methods of the class Console
 Write(…) and WriteLine(…)
 Used to write values to the console
 Read(…) and ReadLine(…)
 Used to read values from the console
 Parsing numbers to strings
 int.Parse(…), double.Parse(…), …

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 Exercises
1. Write a program that reads 3 integer numbers from
the console and prints their sum.
2. Write a program that reads the radius r of a circle
and prints its perimeter and area.
3. A company has name, address, phone number, fax
number, web site and manager. The manager has
first name, last name, age and a phone number.
Write a program that reads the information about a
company and its manager and prints them on the
console.

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 Exercises (2)
4. Write a program that reads two positive integer
numbers and prints how many numbers p exist
between them such that the reminder of the division
by 5 is 0 (inclusive). Example: p(17,25) = 2.
5. Write a program that gets two numbers from the
console and prints the greater of them. Don’t use if
statements.
6. Write a program that reads the coefficients a, b and c
of a quadratic equation ax2+bx+c=0 and solves it
(prints its real roots).

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 Exercises (3)
7. Write a program that gets a number n and after that
gets more n numbers and calculates and prints their
sum.
8. Write a program that reads an integer number n
from the console and prints all the numbers in the
interval [1..n], each on a single line.
9. Write a program to print the first 100 members of
the sequence of Fibonacci: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,
34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, …
10. Write a program to calculate the sum (with accuracy
of 0.001): 1 + 1/2 - 1/3 + 1/4 - 1/5 + ...
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