How can I obtain the named arguments from a console application in the form of a Dictionary<string,string>?

Question

I have a console application called MyTool.exe

What is the simplest way to collect the named arguments passed to this console applicaiton and then to put them in a Dictionarty<string, string>() which will have the argument name as the key and the value as the argument?

for example:

MyTool foo=123432 bar=Alora barFoo=45.9

I should be able to obtain a dictionary which will be:

MyArguments["foo"]=123432 
MyArguments["bar"]="Alora"
MyArguments["barFoo"]="45.9"

Answer 1

Use this Nuget package

• V1.9.x - Command Line Parser Library ^{(CodePlex - Going away soon and out of date)}
• V2+ - Command Line Parser ^{(Ongoing support)}

Takes seconds to configure and adds instant professional touch to your application.

// Define a class to receive parsed values
class Options {
  [Option('r', "read", Required = true,
    HelpText = "Input file to be processed.")]
  public string InputFile { get; set; }

  [Option('v', "verbose", DefaultValue = true,
    HelpText = "Prints all messages to standard output.")]
  public bool Verbose { get; set; }

  [ParserState]
  public IParserState LastParserState { get; set; }

  [HelpOption]
  public string GetUsage() {
    return HelpText.AutoBuild(this,
      (HelpText current) => HelpText.DefaultParsingErrorsHandler(this, current));
  }
}

// Consume them
static void Main(string[] args) {
  var options = new Options();
  if (CommandLine.Parser.Default.ParseArguments(args, options)) {
    // Values are available here
    if (options.Verbose) Console.WriteLine("Filename: {0}", options.InputFile);
  }
}