Advanced Programming

Week No. 1
1. Console Application:

A console application, in the context of C#, is an application that takes input and displays
output at a command line console with access to three basic data streams: standard input,
standard output and standard error.

A console application facilitates the reading and writing of characters from a console -
either individually or as an entire line. It is the simplest form of a C# program and is
typically invoked from the Windows command prompt. A console application usually
exists in the form of a stand-alone executable file with minimal or no graphical user
interface (GUI).
Software required for completing this tutorial successfully

In order to successfully complete this tutorial, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is

required to be installed on your PCs
In today’s session
 What are Console Applications

 Steps to develop a Console Applications

 Input/output Data in Console Applications

 Decision Making in Console Applications

 Creating our first Console Application

Use the following steps to develop the Console Application in C-Sharp

1. Open Visual Studio

Figure 1
2. Next, Choose File  New  Project as shown

Figure 2
3. Choose visual C# language in the Left hand pane of the open Window as shown in the

next figure

Figure 3
4. Next, Choose Console Application from the Right Hand Pane in the Window shown

above. Enter the name of the Application as Week01 as shown below and press the OK

Button

Figure 4
5. You will get the Source Code window as shown below

Figure 5

6. In this screen you can code inside the Main() function. The parameters in Main() function
are called command line parameters. Values to these parameter can be passed from the
command line execution of the program. We will see shortly, how to use these command
line arguments. Here, we will see how to use different input/output statements in C#.

[Link]() : This method is used to output the text on the screen. This method is
functions similar to cout<< or printf() in C/C++ language or [Link],println() method
in Java. A simple example of using [Link]() is shown here
 Figure 6

7. Compile the application from BuildBuild Solution as shown, if no error found your
compilation will be successful and this will show a successful message.
 Figure 7
8. After a successful compilation, run the program as shown

Figure 8
9. You will notice, that program will run, output will disappear soon before you see it. To
stop the output for some time or before user press a key from keyboard. Add this line
before the closing brace of the Main(), as shown in next figure.

[Link]();
 Figure 9
10. Again Run the Application

Figure 10
11. Next, you can add a line break after [Link]() method call by different methods.
You can add a line break by \n and [Link]() to see the line break in action
 Figure 11
12. Compile and run the Application again. You will see the line break

Figure 12
 Input in Console Application
We can use different built-in methods to read inputs from users. For example,
[Link]() method. This method is used to read the input in the textual format and
store in String type of Variables, this is because when data is read using [Link]()
method , it is treated as String.
Here is an example, which is showing the usage of [Link](). Code is shown below

Figure 13
Compile and Run the application. The output is shown in the next figure

Figure 14
 Reading Numeric Input in Console Application

When we read the input using [Link]() method, it is in String format.

Furthermore, we can convert it into different types which are desired. Here is an example
which shows how to convert the input read by [Link]() into numeric values.

Figure 15

Here, we can see addition of new method [Link](), this method is used to convert
the string input value into floating type value. By executing the application, you can see the
output as shown in the next figure below.
 Figure 16

Similarly, there are other methods are also available for converting the data read by
[Link]() to different desired data types including integer.

Convert.ToInt16() used to convert the data input by [Link]() to an equivalent

16-bits signed integer

Convert.ToInt32() used to convert the data input by [Link]() to an equivalent

32-bits signed integer

Convert.ToInt64() used to convert the data input by [Link]() to an equivalent

64-bits signed integer

 Decision Making in Console Application
1. if statement
if statement is similar in C# as it is in C , C++ or Java. A simple example below show its

usage

Figure 17
2. if-else statement
if-else statement is similar in C# as it is in C, C++ or Java. A simple example below show its

usage

Figure 18
3. Nested if-else statement

Nested if-else statement is similar in C# as it is in C , C++ or Java. A simple example below

show its usage

Figure 19
4. switch statement
switch statement is similar in C# as it is in C , C++ or Java. A simple example below show
its usage

Figure 20

Congratulations! We Have successfully Completed today’s Tutorial

Visual Hands on are prepared by

Saif Ur Rehman, Assistant Professor

UIIT, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi